Emergency Response Information System Interoperability: Development of Chemical Incident Response Data Model
Authors: Chen, Rui; Sharman, Raj; Chakravarti, Nirupama; Rao, H. Raghav; Upadhyaya, Shambhu
Journal: Journal of the Association for Information Systems (2008)
DOI: 10.17705/1jais.00153
Emergency response requires an efficient information supply chain for the smooth operations of intra- and interorganizational emergency management processes. However, the breakdown of this information supply chain due to the lack of consistent data standards presents a significant problem. In this paper, we adopt a theory-driven novel approach to develop an XML-based data model that prescribes a comprehensive set of data standards (semantics and internal structures) for emergency management to better address the challenges of information interoperability. Actual documents currently being used in mitigating chemical emergencies from a large number of incidents are used in the analysis stage The data model development is guided by Activity Theory and is validated through a RFC-like process used in standards development. This paper applies the standards to the real case of a chemical incident scenario. Further, it complies with the national leading initiatives in emergency standards (National Information Exchange Model)