Enhancing Enterprise Information Systems Synergy in Disaster Management

Climate change-triggered catastrophic events appear to be steadily increasing in intensity and frequency. Proper preparation, response and recovery are essential in order to survive and recover from disasters. Unfortunately however, the organizations responsible for delivering emergency response services often under-perform, mainly owing to the lack of proper collaboration (especially interoperation) of their information systems. This paper analyses disaster management-specific collaboration issues from an enterprise information systems perspective and proposes improvements based on advances in information systems and interoperability research, using an enterprise architecture perspective and artefacts in order to provide a sustainable holistic and life cycle-based solution.