Expert-Based Evaluation of a Smart Emergency Response System for Urban Settings in Resource-Constrained Environments

The present study evaluates a distributed system architecture designed to improve emergency response in resource-constrained urban areas. The architecture integrates IoT sensors, edge computing, field-programmable gate arrays and distributed shortest-path algorithms to enhance resilience and operational efficiency. A survey of 78 Cameroonian experts in software engineering, distributed systems, urban planning and emergency technologies was conducted. The survey yielded quantitative and qualitative data across multiple analytical dimensions. The statistical analysis confirmed that the architecture is technically feasible, adaptable to local constraints, and has the potential to reduce response times. The following key challenges have been identified: interoperability, urban data structuring, financial sustainability and inter-institutional coordination. In order to address this issue, experts have proposed a hierarchical structure of priority actions and concrete recommendations for engineers, researchers and policymakers. The findings not only validate the architecture but also highlight future research directions, including field prototyping, integration of distributed artificial intelligence, community participation and assessment of ethical and societal impacts in African urban contexts.