Evaluation of disaster management portals: Applying knowledge management to digital information

Abstract

Even though knowledge management has been applied to study disaster relief efforts, the extent to which knowledge management has been incorporated into disaster management portals has yet to attract any scholarly attention. The purpose of this paper is therefore two-fold. One, it seeks to develop a KM framework for disaster management portals. Two, with this framework, it seeks to construct a checklist and demonstrate its utility by evaluating 60 disaster management portals from the North American and the Asian region. Findings revealed statistically significant differences in the knowledge management implementation level between the two regions. The findings also helped to identify the essential knowledge management features that these portals should support. This research not only highlights the usefulness of a knowledge management perspective in managing digital information but also serves as a template to design disaster management portals.