Concluding remarks
What is clear from this special issue is that research endeavors in DM often requires a focus on a particular disaster setting. This focus enables the validation of the conceptual efforts produced with input from DM practitioners. The collection of papers are rooted in floods, bushfires and firefighting. The focus on flood and firefighting is not surprising, given that there are commonly well established institutions in place to manage these emergency types. Hence, access to case studies and data will always be easier in these two. Whilst most papers will continue to focus on firefighting and flood management, there are other types of disasters that are not covered as much and are not reflected in this special issue including for example, earthquakes and landslides. This special issue provides a forum for IS academics and DM practitioners to identify and share the challenges, opportunities, and solutions that improve disaster management systems. A particular focus is on the view point of increased use of semantics to enhance information exchange services. We seek to provide a forum to disseminate work aiming to enhance disaster management systems from the perspective of combining semantics with services including social media. This special issues aims to enhance the theoretical understanding of such systems and their use and application in DM.
