An Empirical Evaluation of Data Interoperability—A Case of the Disaster Management Sector in Uganda
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Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Abstract
One of the grand challenges of disaster management is for stakeholders to be able
to discover, access, integrate and analyze task-appropriate data together with their associated
algorithms and work-flows. Even with a growing number of initiatives to publish data in the disaster
management sector using open principles, integration and reuse are still difficult due to existing
interoperability barriers within datasets. Several frameworks for assessing data interoperability exist
but do not generate best practice solutions to existing barriers based on the assessment they use.
In this study, we assess interoperability for datasets in the disaster management sector in Uganda
and identify generic solutions to interoperability challenges in the context of disaster management.
Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect qualitative data from
sector stakeholders in Uganda. Data interoperability was measured to provide an understanding
of interoperability in the sector. Interoperability maturity is measured using qualitative methods,
while data compatibility metrics are computed from identifiers in the RDF-triple model. Results
indicate high syntactic and technical interoperability maturity for data in the sector. On the contrary,
there exists considerable semantic and legal interoperability barriers that hinder data integration
and reuse in the sector. A mapping of the interoperability challenges in the disaster management
sector to solutions reveals a potential to reuse established patterns for managing data interoperability.
These include; the federated pattern, linked data patterns, broadcast pattern, rights and policy
harmonization patterns, dissemination and awareness pattern, ontology design patterns among
others. Thus a systematic approach to combining patterns is critical to managing data interoperability
barriers among actors in the disaster management ecosystem.
Description
Keywords
Disaster, Hazard, FAIR, Data interoperability, Patterns
Citation
Mazimwe, A., Hammouda, I., & Gidudu, A. (2019). An empirical evaluation of data interoperability—A case of the disaster management sector in Uganda. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 8(11), 484. doi:10.3390/ijgi8110484