Timely and accurate information are keys to effective disaster management. Most efforts to deal with the challenge of handling disaster information have focused in four areas: communications infrastructure, collection and dissemination systems, data standards, and decision-making aids. Despite considerable progress in a technical sense, the effectiveness of these efforts in improving the actual response to disasters is unclear.

The paper addresses the information challenge from a more basic level, focusing on simple criteria for defining what information is needed by whom and when. Once information requirements are defined based on simple geographical, temporal and decision making criteria, then sophisticated communication and decision making systems can be applied more effectively and overall disaster management improved.

Originally presented at The International Emergency Management and Engineering Society Conference, The George Washington University, Washington, May 1998.