Emerging information infrastructures: Cooperation in disasters

Abstract

Disasters are characterised by their devastating effect on human lives and the society's ability to function. Unfortunately, rescue operations and the possibility to re-establish a working society after such events is often hampered by the lack of functioning communication infrastructures. This paper describes the challenges ahead in creating new communication networks to support post-disaster operations, and sets them in the context of the current issues in protection of critical infrastructures. The analysis reveals that while there are some common concerns there are also fundamental differences. The paper serves as an overview of some promising research directions and pointers to existing works in these areas. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.