A comparative study of disaster management information systems
| Date | 08 October 2018 |
| Pages | 971-988 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-06-2016-0168 |
| Published date | 08 October 2018 |
| Author | Muhammad Masood Rafi,Tariq Aziz,Sarosh Hashmat Lodi |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management |
A comparative study of disaster
management information systems
Muhammad Masood Rafi
Department of Earthquake Engineering,
NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan, and
Tariq Aziz and Sarosh Hashmat Lodi
Department of Civil Engineering,
NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan
Abstract
Purpose –Disaster management information systems (DMISs) have been proposed in different parts of the
world for effective response to a disaster. The purpose of this paper is to: compare design approaches of these
DMISs; examine similarities in the design of databases and communication infrastructure; and draw
conclusions. Based on the examination of the studies, future opportunities have been identified and discussed.
Design/methodology/approach –The studies in the available literature on the designs of automated
DMISs have been reviewed in the presented paper to identify similarities in design premise, conceptual design
and design considerations.
Findings –The examination of the available studies indicates that the research on DMIS has increased
significantly in different countries of the world since 2004. Data of baseline information and available
resources are required by most of the presented studies, as these data are necessary for effective response to a
disaster. The communication infrastructures suggested include local area network, wide area network and
satellite communication for better coordination between the responders and different relief agencies at
different locations. The connectivity to these networks is possible through Ethernet, Wi-Fi, general packet
radio service or satellite.
Research limitations/implications –Although the research on DMIS has increased significantly over the
last one decade, the studies are still few in numbers. Similarly, only few of the proposed systems have been
developed and tested during a real disaster.
Practical implications –The presented review of available studies provides a holistic view of the proposed
DMISs which could be useful to the disaster management authorities.
Originality/value –The paper provides valuable information on the differences in the proposed DMISs.
This can help in identifying the gaps for future improvements for increased effectiveness of a DMIS. The
future opportunities have also been identified in the presented paper and are discussed.
Keywords Communication, Disaster, Mitigation, Information system, Response, Hurricane
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Human response to natural hazards has been a subject of intense investigation and study.
These hazards have proved to be the most difficult enemy of mankind as they are able to
cause destruction on a large scale close to human settlements. The events of natural
disasters may be identified by excessive magnitude, frequency or duration (Arey and
Baumann, 1971; Bolt et al., 1975). Human activities, in some cases, also influence the
frequency and severity of natural hazards (Shield, 2004). Natural hazards are of either
geological or atmospheric origin. These include hurricanes, volcanoes, floods, tornados,
typhoons, famine, fires, landslides and earthquakes. Some of these hazards may be
interconnected with each other. For example, earthquakes may cause landslides.
The study of human history indicates that the ability of natural hazards to cause
destruction is partly due to lack of preparedness of human beings to mitigate the effects of
these hazards. A hazard needs not to become a disaster. Disaster preparedness and
mitigation prevent a hazard from turning into disaster which can reduce the efforts for
reconstruction and rehabilitation of the affectees. Nevertheless, in many cases, this is not
possible to avoid disasters completely. As a result, disasters happen and cause loss of life
Online Information Review
Vol. 42 No. 6, 2018
pp. 971-988
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-06-2016-0168
Received 29 June 2016
Revised 10 October 2017
12 October 2017
Accepted 28 December 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
971
A comparative
study of
DMISs
and property, disruption of services, hunger, injures and diseases (Vanholder et al., 2001;
Zhang et al., 2002).
Disaster management (DM) deals with both the mitigation and consequences of
disasters. The former refers to pre-disaster preparations whereas the latter is related to
post-disaster response. Aspects of planning to deal with a hazard and to avoid associated
risks (Haddow and Bullock, 2004) are parts of pre-disaster mitigation. Post-disaster
response is required to assure prompt and appropriate assistance to the victims of disaster,
and to achieve rapid and effective recovery from a disaster.
Post-DM operations are complex (Bigley andRoberts, 2001) and are information-intensive
(Davenport and Prusak, 1998; Meissneret al., 2002; De Bruijn, 2006) as these involve different
stakeholders(Comfort and Kapucu, 2006).An effective response toa disaster requires not only
a large variety of information for the decision makers but also its rapid flow and better
coordination of activities. Good quality information improves the effectiveness of DM
operations and avoids dangers to the responders and victims (Helsloot, 2005; Fisher and
Kingma, 2001; Turoff, Chumer, Hiltz, Klashner, Alles, Vasarhelyi, Kogan, 2004; Turoff,
Chumer Walle and Yao, 2004;Hassan et al., 2011). The coordination is neededboth within the
DM agency and between different agencies at several hierarchal levels(Auf der Heide, 1989).
Since these operations involve severe time pressure and high uncertainty (Argote, 1982;
Smith and Hayne, 1997; Ganeshkumar and Ramesh, 2010), improved coordination
between relief agencies and workers can help in optimising the resources to carry out relief
activities efficiently.
The use of computing technology has increased in DM similar to other fields (Borkulo
et al., 2005; Dorasamy et al., 2011; Dorasamy and Raman, 2011; McEntire, 2007; Raman et al.,
2011; Turoff, Chumer, Hiltz, Klashner, Alles, Vasarhelyi, Kogan, 2004; Turoff, Chumer Walle
and Yao, 2004; Wattegama, 2007; Ariyabandu, 2009; Tad and Janardhanan, 2014). The
availability of advanced hardware and software capabilities allows a swift response to any
emergency situation in reasonable time and cost. The use of an integrated system to connect
relief agencies together and to provide them ways to exchange and process information in
real-time can enhance effectiveness of emergency response. The advancement in technology
has made it possible to achieve both these objectives by transferring its benefits in the area
of DM. As a result, the need of development and use of automated systems to manage
disasters have attracted the attention of researchers all over the world (Stephenson and
Anderson, 1997). Efforts have been carried out to provide reliable and coordinated response
to a disaster using support networks and physical facilities which could be kept functional
in a disaster situation with the help of modern technology (Kunreuther and Lerner-Lam,
2002; Mork, 2002).
DM refers to the process of acquisition, management and utilisation of disaster
information in order to carry out disaster relief operations (Zhang et al., 2002). The modern
technologies provide an effective tool for the development of a DM information system
(DMIS). A DMIS is a computer database that enables the responders to share and use real-
time information during a disaster (Atteih et al., 2010; Lee et al., 2012; Murphy and Jennex,
2006). Considering the advantages that an automated DMIS can offer, these systems have
been proposed in different countries of the world. Data integration, data mining and multi-
criteria decision making are the essential components of an automated DMIS (Peng et al.,
2011). The data integration provides a link between the modules of data sources and data
analysis. The data mining assists the users in the management of pre- and post-disaster
information. The multi-criteria decision making is used to dispatch emergency resources
and to evaluate effective alternative solutions. This paper reviews the literature on the
strategies to design these components. The approach used by different researchers to
design these aforementioned components, and the system development and management
schemes have been compared. Based on this comparison, gaps in the proposals of DMISs
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