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A Study on Emergency Dispatching Systems in Seoul

Author: 
Jong-Seok WonㆍSang-Gyoon Kim
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Recently, There is an increase in Emergency Calls made in Seoul. Accurate information about the location in an emergency situation can help reduce number of victims and property damage. Seoul Emergency Operation Center(SEOC) has helped protect citizen but it requires many changes in terms of information capacity for emergency call response.

Making rescues in a metropolitan such as Seoul may be difficult due to the single-family houses, road, greens and riversides. Time required for rescues are relatively longer in the case of emergencies such as collapse, natural disaster and drowning. The number of casualties is usually high in cases such as traffic accidents. The process of asking for location makes up 2.7% of the time of the emergency call. It seems insignificant but it is so important especially when it is a matter of life and death Time required for ambulance dispatching varies with locations. Ambiguous information on the location results in so much time required for dispatching.

In this research, the citizens of Seoul thought blind spots are important (32% of citizen). Those thought weak persons to demage need more protection. According to Emergency call dispatchers, Information Systems, which are very important in dispatching and obtaining geographical location information in SEOC are old.

New technologies are required for the SEOC information systems. The use of advanced systems in other parts of the world show integrating and sharing of emergency information, strategic location information, ease of call-users.

Thus, the Seoul Metropolitan Government(SMG) must take the responsibilities of implementing a set of Directions and Proposals plan in order to strengthen the SEOC. Regions group as blind spots should be given the first priority. In this study, we propose solutions to the SMG’s SEOC problems. We took into account the current state, related cases, time and region analysis in dispatching, discussed with those in charge, and the got the opinions of disaptchers, professionals and citizen who had participated in training course of emergency response.

The results of this study led us to the following conclusions:

ⅰ) The SMG’s Emergency dispatching policy segmentation is required considering program setting and strategic information planning.

ⅱ) The SEOC must continuously make the response to blind spots of emergency dispatching using intelligent information system.

ⅲ) The SEOC should improve their systems and make it possible for partnership with citizen in emergency response.