A structured and dynamic model for emergency management exercises

Emergencies are management challenges, and emergency exercises that involve multiple collaborating parties isa means towards mastering them. Such exercises are often conducted in a virtual training environment based oncomplex disaster scenarios. The reported study was carried out using a requirement-focused design approach. Theaim was to describe and discuss a relevant design for lean, dynamic, and cost-efficient emergency managementexercise systems. Data were gathered from a literature study and analyses of earlier emergency managementprojects in which the authors had participated. Despite the complexity of many current emergency managementexercises, the scenarios usually involve only the response phases and have a linear structure that hinders bothdidactic aspects and the software structure. The conclusion drawn from the study is that an emergencymanagement exercise model should focus on managing the activities that correspond to alternatives that unfoldfrom a dynamic scenario. Finally, the authors recommend the principles of alternate reality games as a waytowards more dynamic and cost-efficient emergency exercise systems.