Creating a Taxonomy of Earthquake Disaster Response and Recovery for Online Earthquake Information Management

Abstract

The goal of this study is to develop a taxonomy of earthquake response and recovery using online information resources for organizing and sharing earthquake-related online information resources. A constructivist/interpretivist research paradigm was used in the study. A combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches was used to build the taxonomy. Facet analysis of disaster management, the timeframe of disaster management, and modular design were performed when designing the taxonomy. Two case studies were done to demonstrate the usefulness of the taxonomy for organizing and sharing information. The facet-based taxonomy can be used to organize online information for browsing and navigation. It can also be used to index and tag online information resources to support searching. It creates a common language for earthquake management stakeholders to share knowledge. The top three level categories of the taxonomy can be applied to the management of other types of disasters. The taxonomy has implications for earthquake online information management, knowledge management and disaster management. The approach can be used to build taxonomies for managing online information resources on other topics (including various types of time-sensitive disaster responses). We propose a common language for sharing information on disasters, which has great social relevance.