Towards a Collaborative Disaster Management Service Framework using Mobile and Web Applications

Abstract

Getting the right information at the right time and place is the key for efficient disaster management. Various mobile and web applications are now being used for collecting situational information in digital form, assessing damage, coordinating relief operations and offering different location based services to the affected communities during disaster management. This article provides a thorough investigation on popular web-based and mobile applications currently being used in different countries. Subsequently, the taxonomy of essential services needed for systematic and coordinated disaster management is formulated based on literature review and the authors' interaction with different stakeholders. An outline of a collaborative disaster management service framework is then proposed with the facility of interaction for the stakeholders through their mobile phones to avail the services in different phases of a disaster. A basic version of this framework is implemented to evaluate its effectiveness as a provider of significant actionable information to offer responsive services