The Composing Of Capabilities Of Urban Search And Rescue Teams And The Study Of Evaluation Index System

Most developed countries through out the world have already established urban search and rescue (USAR) teams. The establishment of USAR teams is a sign of high economic development level. USAR teams can reduce the loss caused by disaster, improve the ability to respond to disaster, and safeguard urban continual development. Continuously perfecting USAR teams' can ensure earthquake emergency rescue efficiency. The evaluation of USAR teams' ability is not only one of the methods to perfect USAR teams, but also one of the methods to help to improve the ability of USAR teams themselves.The USAR teams' ability index system is researched systematically and in depth in this study based on an analysis of the structure of USAR teams of various countries, including China. The concept of a normal USAR team is proposed. Nine kinds of rescue along with their associated knowledge, technique, and tools are introduced. The structural model of the normal USAR team is constructed based on the models introduced by International Search and Rescue Advisor Group of the United Nations and American Urban Search and Rescue Task Force. The factors that affect the ability of USAR teams are grouped into five aspects, which are sub-grouped into four layers. The hierarchy of the index system is analyzed in details. A new index system of USAR teams' ability is proposed, of which each index is evaluated. A model of a comprehensive evaluation of USAR team ability is further established with mathematical method, which emphasizes on the determination of the weight of each index in the index system. The Analytic Hierarch Process is applied in the evaluation of the weight of the indexes.The study is considered to be significant in terms of understanding of the elements of the ability of USAR teams, directing the construction of USAR teams, and building the foundation for the evaluation criteria of the ability of USAR teams.