Community-based collaborative information system for emergency management

Natural and man‐made disasters, such as tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, and epidemics pose a significant threat to human societies. To respond to emergencies in a fast and an effective manner, Multi‐Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) is very important for the decision‐making process. The provision of information concerning the ‘ground‐zero’ situation to the emergency management stakeholders is an essential prerequisite for MCDM. In this paper, we propose a strategy to form a community‐based virtual database, which connects local resource databases of suppliers that provide information and human resources for emergency management. Such a virtual database enables collaborative information sharing among community‐based NGOs, public, and private organizations within a community. Moreover, to mobilize resources, the aforementioned process raises awareness within the community and aids in assessing local knowledge and resources. In our work, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of such a community‐based database, which maximally utilizes all of the available information and network resources of a community to better manage natural and man‐made disasters.