Knowledge Management Systems for emergency managers: Malaysian perspective

Recent disasters in Malaysia which was composed of major floods and landslides events proved that despite past experiences and strong disaster management mechanism, life and property losses is still unavoidable. Our proposition is the disaster planning and response efforts need a more prudent solution in order to reduce life and property losses. This paper attempts to answer how emergency managers and responders can benefit from an information and communication technology (ICT) in the form of a Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) implementation to support their planning and response efforts, hence reduce the losses. The paper examines recent literatures in the context of KMS for disasters. The findings of this paper are twofold. First, it points out the role and possible usage of KMS to improve the effectiveness of planning and response efforts for emergency managers and secondly, the important factors to consider in developing an effective KMS for disaster. The knowledge gained from this studies should help emergency managers learn from past disasters that already been so costly to society.