IMPROVING THE EXCHANGE OF KNOWLEDGE ON NATURAL DISASTERS: THE VALUE OF COMMUNITIES OF VIRTUAL PRACTICE

Abstract

In order to improve the management of natural disasters it is necessary for the stakeholders to analyse past experiences, identify best practices, and report lessons learned. Nevertheless, stakeholders currently encounter difficulties in order to exchange information and knowledge with the rest of involved stakeholders. First, knowledge remains fragmented among the variety of the stakeholders from different hierarchical levels, cultures, and organizations that are involved in natural disaster management. Second, there is a lack of a common repository that enhances the exchange of information and knowledge between organizations. Furthermore, it is difficult to share sensitive information such as lessons learned and best practices reports where mistakes made by the organizations in past events can be found. Finally, there is an overload of information about the management of natural disasters that the stakeholders cannot analyse. This paper presents a case study about the ELITE European project that has the objective of improving the exchange of information and knowledge among the European community of experts in managing natural disasters. To do so, the ELITE project has formed a Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP) that groups together 70 multidisciplinary experts in natural disaster management from Europe. In order for the ELITE VCoP members to exchange experiences, best practices, and lessons learned in a confidential and user friendly environment, a dynamic repository of information has been developed. Keywords: Virtual community of practice, knowledge management, natural disasters, lessons learned, best practices, dynamic repository of information.