A decision support system and method of assessing an intervention action in response to a hazard situation. The decision support system outputs information representing the hazard situation by combining data from data sources describing one of the hazard situation and a physical domain including at least one source of real-time data from the physical domain. A simulation is run using rules to predict the behavior of individual agents in response to the hazard situation, where the system selects one action from a set of candidate intervention actions based on the behavior predicted by the agent and tests the selected intervention action by initiating, for each of a predetermined set of possible outcomes of the selected intervention action, an operation to reiterate the simulation with a respective possible outcome as a factor influencing agent behavior.
Please help me write a proper abstract based on the patent claims. CLAIM: 1. A decision support system assessing an intervention action in response to a hazard situation developing in a physical domain, the decision support system comprising: a hazard simulator configured to generate and output information representing the hazard situation by combining data from a plurality of data sources describing one of the hazard situation and the physical domain including at least one source of real-time data from the physical domain; an agent based modeler configured to run a simulation using rules for predicting the behavior of agents affected by the hazard situation to predict the behavior of the individual agents in response to the hazard situation; a decision selector configured to select one intervention action from a set of candidate intervention actions in dependence upon the behavior predicted by the agent based modeler; an iterative decision tester configured to test the selected intervention action by, for each of a predetermined set of possible outcomes of the selected intervention action, initiating the agent-based modeler to reiterate the simulation with the respective possible outcome as a factor influencing agent behavior; and an assessor configured to assess the behavior of the agents predicted by each iteration of the simulation to determine whether to initiate the selected intervention action. 2. A decision support system according to claim 1, comprising: a rule generator configured to use the information output by the hazard simulator to generate rules for predicting the behavior of agents affected by the hazard situation. 3. A decision support system according to claim 1, wherein the hazard simulator comprises: a federated database server configured to retrieve data from the plurality of data sources, and a data exploration engine configured to analyze the retrieved data in order to generate the information representing the hazard situation. 4. A decision support system according to claim 3, wherein the plurality of data sources includes one or more of the following: a data source storing date representing the socio-economic properties of occupants of the physical domain; a data source storing data representing environmental conditions in the physical domain; a data source storing candidate intervention actions; a data source storing a representation of geographical information in the physical domain including one or more of land surface information, vegetation surface information, river surface information, ocean information including information of at least one of a tide, a wave height, and air information including pollution and visibility; a data source storing a representation of man-made structures in the physical domain; a data source storing implementation options for each candidate intervention action; and a data source storing data representing hazard prediction information. 5. A decision support system according to claim 1, wherein the decision selector is configured to select more than one from the set of candidate intervention actions in dependence upon the behavior predicted by the agent based modeler; the iterative decision tester is configured to test each of the more than one selected intervention actions; and the assessor is configured to determine which one of the selected intervention actions to initiate based on the assessment of the behavior of the agents predicted by each iteration of the simulation. 6. A decision support system according to claim 5, wherein the iterative decision tester is configured to test the more than one of the selected intervention actions in combination with another one of the selected intervention actions in iterations of the simulation. 7. A decision support system according to claim 1, wherein the iterative decision tester is configured to access a plurality of implementation options associated with the selected intervention action, and for each implementation option, to reiterate the simulation with each possible outcome, the respective implementation option and the respective possible outcome each being factors influencing agent behavior; and the assessor is configured to select an implementation option for the selected intervention action based on the assessment of the behavior of the agents predicted by each iteration of the simulation. 8. A decision support system according to claim 1, further comprising: a communicator configured to output a representation of the intervention action determined to be initiated, by the assessor, and the selected implementation option to one of a user interface, one or more recipients. 9. A decision support system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of data sources includes an intervention action, and a previously determined implementation option to be initiated by the assessor, and the information output by the hazard simulator includes an indication of the previously determined intervention action, and a corresponding implementation option. 10. A decision support system according to claim 1, wherein the assessor is configured to assess the behavior of agents predicted by each iteration of the simulation by comparing the predicted behavior with one or more behavior goals and quantifying whether each of the behavior goals is satisfied by the predicted behavior. 11. A decision support system according to claim 1, wherein the assessor is configured to obtain a representation of cost associated with the selected intervention action, and each implementation option, where cost information is included as a factor in determining whether to initiate the selected intervention action and/or which implementation option to select. 12. A decision support system according to claim 1, comprising: a rule generator is configured to combine rule definitions from an external agent library with information output by the hazard simulator to generate an agent library specific to the hazard situation and the physical domain including the rules for predicting the behavior of agents affected by the hazard situation. 13. A decision support method for assessing an intervention action in response to a hazard situation developing in a physical domain, the decision support method comprising: generating and outputting information representing the hazard situation by combining data from a plurality of data sources describing the hazard situation and/or the physical domain including at least one source of real-time data from the physical domain; generating rules, using the output information, for predicting the behavior of agents affected by the hazard situation; executing a simulation using an agent based modeling simulator and generated rules to predict the behavior of the agents in response to the hazard situation; selecting one intervention action from a set of candidate intervention actions in dependence upon the predicted behavior; testing the selected intervention action, for each of a predetermined set of possible outcomes of the selected intervention action, by initiating further simulations by the agent based modeling simulator with a respective possible outcome as a factor influencing agent behavior; and assessing the behavior of the agents predicted by each iteration of the simulation and determining whether to initiate the selected intervention action. 14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a computer program which, when executed by a computing apparatus, causes the computing apparatus to function as the decision support system of claim 1. 15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a computer program which, when executed by a computing apparatus, causes the computing apparatus to perform the method of claim 13.