Expanding the Disaster Management Knowledge Space through Spatial Mediation

Successfully dealing with natural disasters is a major concern throughout the world. A critical issue in disaster management is to have access to the right knowledge at the right time. Knowledge management systems play an important role in making the appropriate knowledge available when it is needed. In this presentation we describe expansion of the natural knowledge space through the use of a spatial mediator included in a dynamic visual topic map. The dynamic visual topic map provides disaster management workers access to a collaborative knowledge management system. Moreover, by including access to a spatial mediator, the topic map can provide workers with access to critical location specific knowledge in addition to existing information on managing disasters.