Because there are only a limited number of means of action that are available for the master to pursue in the event of flooding, onboard decision support system has been required. The majority of systems activated during a flooding emergency (such as watertight and semi-watertight doors, bulkhead valves, dewatering pumps etc.) almost exclusively aim to restore a sufficiently high level of subdivision to prevent flooding from spreading through the ship. Even though assuming the flooding scenario is not catastrophic, the use of ballast tanks can be an additional and very effective tool to ensure both prevention of flooding spreading and also improve ship stability. This paper describes an optimization algorithm devised to choose the set of ballast tanks that should be filled in order to achieve an optimal response to a flooding accident.