Urgent computing for decision support in critical situations

Urgent computing for decision support in critical situations requires a cutting-edge interdisciplinary research combining data-driven modelling, high-performance computing, advanced numerical simulation and visualization. Examples of critical situations arising in complex technical, environmental and social systems include floods, earthquakes, wildfires, terrorist attacks, pandemics, financial crises, etc. Within the “urgent computing” concept, computational modules and data services are integrated in distributed computing environment to facilitate the decision making process, helping to find optimal scenarios under severe time constraints. Urgent computing is the core technology for the Early Warning Systems (EWS) for monitoring, anomaly detection and disaster prediction and prevention. This paper reviews the progress in this challenging field of urgent computing.