BENEFITS OF LINKED DATA FOR INTEROPERABILITY DURING CRISIS MANAGEMENT

Abstract. Floodings represent a permanent risk to the Netherlands in general and to her power supply in particular. Data sharing is essential within this crisis scenario as a power cut affects a great variety of interdependant sectors. Currently used data sharing systems have been shown to hamper interoperability between stakeholders since they lack flexibility and there is no consensus in term definitions and interpretations. The study presented in this paper addresses these challenges by proposing a new data sharing solution based on Linked Data, a method of interlinking data points in a structured way on the web. A conceptual model for two data sharing parties in a flood-caused power cut crisis management scenario was developed to which relevant data were linked. The analysis revealed that the presented data sharing solution burderns its user with extra costs in the short run, but saves resources in the long run by overcoming interoperability problems of the legacy systems. The more stakeholders adopt Linked Data the stronger its benefits for data sharing will become.