Information Sharing during Emergency Response and Recovery

Road organizations are involved in a wide range of emergency response and recovery activities. Information sharing is a critical element in deploying road organization resources during such activities. This paper presents an information-sharing framework for road organizations. On the basis of a study of response and recovery activities, information needs were identified and a geographic information system-based information-sharing framework was created. The framework is applied to a desktop case study in the South Island of New Zealand to establish the magnitude of potential benefits. Results indicate that a reduction in time and cost of emergency response activities could be achieved if the conceptual framework was implemented through reduced response times, faster access to relevant information, and therefore enhanced decision making.