Web-Based Solutions for Communication and Knowledge Management in Disaster Situations

Natural disaster situations are becoming more complex and require technology-based solutions for communication and knowledge management across the stakeholders involved. This includes interorganizational as well as internal communication. Interoperability and standards are major requirements to achieve seamless communication. In this article, we present the system and web-based services developed during the EU Horizon 2020 HEIMDALL project with particular focus on information-exchange use cases based on a scenario data structure that captures the available knowledge. For interorganizational communication, a catalog module connects users in a content-oriented federated architecture, which allows sharing of information during all phases of emergency management and enables a secure aggregation of expert knowledge. For internal communication, a drone-based networked system via satellite or mobile networks is used for monitoring, and an alerting and information service is used to enable communication with first responders on their smartphone.