Challenges and obstacles in sharing and coordinating information during multi-agency disaster response: Propositions from field exercises

Abstract

Although various scholars have researched issues regarding disaster management, few have studied the sharing and coordinating of information during disasters. Not much empirical data is available in this field and there is sparse insight into the factors that may impede or facilitate information sharing and coordination among stakeholders. In this paper, we provide an overview of the relevant obstacles and challenges by examining existing literature and then investigating a series of multi-agency disaster management exercises, using observations and a survey. Although all the people who took part in our study agree that sharing information is important, for the success of their own organization as well as the exercise as a whole, the extent to which information is actually being shared among organizations is often limited by a number of factors that can be attributed to the community, agency and individual level. We found that relief workers are often more concerned with receiving information from others than with providing information to others who may benefit. Incentives for sharing information, understanding each other's work-processes and the usability of information systems have shown positive effects on information sharing and coordination. The findings of our study have been formulated using six grounded propositions, which can be used by system designers and policy-makers upon validation in further research. We also provide directions for future research.

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“…An extensive literature survey demonstrates that emergency response organizations struggle with information sharing, communication and coordination [10,17,[21][22][23]. Furthermore, Wolbers and Boersma [17] based on empirical research mention that despite the fact that emergency response organizations rely upon each other's information to align work processes, they do not share information tending to operate within their own professional boundaries.…”

“…Information sharing and coordination stay at the top of the research agenda, despite the progress that may have been done through time [10]. In addition, the growing attention on the improvement of the protection from natural hazards in Europe and beyond, led to an increasing demand for information sharing [16].…”

“…In short, emergency response organizations still struggle with information sharing, communication and coordination [10,17,[21][22][23]. The unforeseen, dynamic and complex nature of an emergency in which multiple groups of professionals need to cooperate is seen by various scholars (e.g.…”

“…[24,25]) as the reason for which the responding agencies battle to share and coordinate information. Although information sharing and coordination in emergency response are of apparent importance, they have received relatively little scientific attention [10,26,27].…”

Ad Hoc Networks and Mobile Devices in Emergency Response – A Perfect Match?

“…Bharosa et al [2] address both user interface and network issues, but with a much broader scope, and thus being far less specific when handling these issues.…”