**Research on the Construction of a Natural Hazard Emergency Relief Alliance Based on the Public Participation Degree**

#### **Yingxin Chen <sup>1</sup> , Jing Zhang 2,3,\*, Zhaoguo Wang 4,\* and Pandu R. Tadikamalla <sup>5</sup>**


Received: 16 February 2020; Accepted: 18 March 2020; Published: 25 March 2020

**Abstract:** At present, in light of new situations and the new task of natural hazard response, effective public participation in emergency relief has become an urgent task that can reduce economic losses and casualties. The purpose of this paper is to construct a natural hazard emergency relief alliance and analyze the mechanisms and dynamics of public participation. In this study, methods based on a multi-agent system were adopted, and we used different participants as heterogeneous agents with different attitudes and resources. Using four different processes, namely participation proposals, negotiation interval, negotiation decision-making function, and participation strategy, we comprehensively construct an emergency relief alliance for natural hazards. In addition, the dynamic public interaction process is analyzed and a construction algorithm is given. The experimental results show that the proposed method has better performance in alliance formation efficiency, negotiation efficiency, and agent utility. The research results illustrate that the public's attitudes and resources influence the construction of emergency relief alliances; a greater degree of public participation contributes to a more efficient alliance formation. The findings of this study contribute to the promotion of public cooperation and improvement in the efficiency of natural hazard emergency relief.

**Keywords:** natural hazards; multi-agent system; emergency relief; public participation
