Towards a Community-Centered Knowledge Management Architecture for Disaster Management in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Disasters in developing nations are typically caused by frequent and intense climate changes, which contribute to the socio-economic vulnerabilities of such nations. It is important to be strategic in the management of disasters in such regions in order to minimize their impact on thriving communities. There is therefore the need for effective disaster response that allows for access, analysis, and integration of information from varied sources. This Chapter presents architecture for managing knowledge on disaster in Sub-Saharan African nations. This architecture captures the critical contextual variables using process view of knowledge management to assist citizens who are less knowledgeable about disaster management to understand the various forms of knowledge on disaster response while developing extensive knowledge and building capability necessary to address disaster response and management. It also addresses issues with building IT expertise on disaster response in developing nations. More importantly, the architecture facilitates the creation, storage/retrieval, transfer, and application of knowledge on disaster response and management especially for ordinary citizens. The architecture also helps overcome issues with lack of collaboration and coordination across disaster response and management agencies.