Abstract
Disaster warning networks are a particularly significant subgroup of information systems because if they fail to operate as anticipated, serious life loss, injury, and property damage almost inevitably occur. For example, at 11 p.m. on 12 November 1970, a major cyclone struck the coast of Bangladesh. The associated storm surge, which drowned some 225,000 people, reached a maximum of almost seven metres above normal high tide. However, landfall had been predicted for several days, since this storm had been tracked by satellite as it swept inexorably up the Bay of Bengal (Burton, Kates and White, 1978). Similarly, on November 13, 1985, lahars from Nevado del Ruiz, in west central Columbia, inundated the towns of Armero, Tolima and Chinchina, killing at least 22,000 inhabitants. Despite widespread fatalities, it could not be claimed that these volcanic mudslides were unexpected. Indeed, in October a hazard map of Ruiz volcano had been issued that accurately predicted the scale of the November 13 eruption. Prior to the destruction of Armero, both its mayor and the Red Cross had pleaded for evacuation (Herd, 1986).
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Foster, H.D. (1987). Disaster Warning Systems: Learning from Failure. In: Wise, J.A., Debons, A. (eds) Information Systems: Failure Analysis. NATO ASI Series, vol 32. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83091-4_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83091-4_1
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