Ontology structure of elements for web-based natural disaster management systems: Development, management, evaluation, and application.

摘要

Recent natural disasters have highlighted the need for disaster preparedness, planning, and management. Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the usefulness of websites in dealing with a natural disaster. However, little is known about the necessary contents and structures of web-based information management for disaster management. This dissertation focuses on identifying web elements for web-based natural disaster management through developing an ontology structure for websites. The research methodology in this dissertation is design science, and involves four phases: development, management, evaluation, and application.;In the first phase (development), appropriate technologies for capturing and integrating elements are selected through a comprehensive review of the existing semi-structured data representation technologies. This phase involves the development of an algorithm for identifying, mapping, and integrating ontology elements. The development process is based on the grounded theory using an inventory of 100 non-profit disaster websites and their numerous web pages. The selected technologies are used to map, integrate, and organize the resulting elements of the ontology structure. The second phase (management) involves the creation of a web-based system to manage the resulting ontology structure. The system is coded in Java and is accessible on the web. The third phase (evaluation) involves the assessment of the ontology structure using a survey approach and domain experts. One of the outcomes of the third phase is a set of relative importance ratings of the validated ontology elements. The results of the relative importance are reported according to the U.S. geographic regions and divisions. The fourth phase (application) uses the validated ontology structure and the relative importance of elements to assess the quality and completeness of official disaster/emergency management websites in the 50 states in the U.S. The assessment is carried out by our implemented benchmarking tool based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The outcome of the fourth phase is the evaluation of disaster management websites by identifying their ranks, strengths, and weaknesses.;This research project makes a number of contributions to the disaster management research and practice. This work is the first to identify and organize elements needed for effective web-based disaster management. It can be used in developing web-based disaster management websites. Furthermore, the ontology development algorithm is general and can be applied in other fields. The synthesis of the technologies for mapping, integrating, and organizing the ontology elements provides a roadmap for similar undertakings in other domains. The weights in the ontology structure can be used to assess the quality and completeness of disaster-management websites. Finally, this work can serve as a basis for developing a global knowledge-base for elements of disaster-management websites.