Designing chemical emergency response systems based on open data

Abstract

Emergency situations call for reliable information to allow for an effective and timely response. While digitalization penetrates industry sectors at an increasing rate, advances in information technology are not fully leveraged in emergency situations today. Building upon the paradigm of openness in form of open data, we propose a solution that connects government-provided emergency services with private sector expertise and resources. We apply a design science research approach to design an artifact that provides information in real-time to fire departments and medical staff in case of chemical substance incidents. We showcase that by providing open data, private sector organizations acknowledge their responsibility to share critical data while creating value in the process. Our contribution with this paper is threefold: First, we derive design requirements for artifacts to address chemical substance incidents. Second, we design and evaluate an artifact to showcase its suitability. Third, we showcase value creation through open data.