Giorgio de Felice

Research topic I am currently involved in has as main target to develop a complex reasoning system able to derive new spatial information starting a mixed description of the space that make use of qualitative, quantitative and semantic information.

The theoretical research is applied to the disaster management field. In such a situation disaster managers and rescue squads need as much information as possible regarding the real situation in order to take the best decisions to save human lives. The mixed reasoning techniques allow to derive new knowledge starting from information already available. Using as input a geometrical description of the environment (GIS) before the natural event, decriptions furnished by rescue squads describing the new environmental settings and conceptual knowledge (semantic descriptions) about disaster situations it is possible to infer information that can help people involved in rescue tasks or decison makers to accomplish their tasks reducing the risk of mistakes. One example is given by the partial map reconstruction of a city after an extreme events basing on the given information; this map can be used by rescuers in order to reach crytical zones (e.g., damaged building) reducing the risk to find blocked roads.