Supporting time-critical decision making with real time simulations

This paper describes the use of real time simulation to aid time-critical decision making. An example of such a situation is the provision of a fire and rescue service response to an emergency. Another example is in a battle situation where a field commander has to take a rapid decision on how best to deploy troops. If a simulation model is available that can be run sufficiently fast this can be used to evaluate the likely outcome of different possible decisions before the real decision is actually made, and so provide information on the likely consequences. The methodology of using a simulation model in this way is discussed and applied to an example from the fire and rescue service.