A Danish Terminological Ontology of Incident Management in the Field of Disaster Management

Lack of concept clarification based on concept modelling results in inappropriate term use and inefficient information and communication technology. In this contribution, we refer to the fire aboard the ship Scandinavian Star in 1990 and the terror attack at Utøya in 2011 as examples. We establish a terminological ontology for 46 Danish concepts included in an alphabetically organized term list on incident management by the Danish Emergency Management Agency (DEMA). Based on this ontology, the main aim is to demonstrate how terminological principles may form the basis for creating structured data, which may support a common understanding of domain‐specific key concepts which again is a prerequisite for successful and well‐functioning disaster management systems. The terminological method will be explained, focusing on terminological ontologies and terminological definitions reflecting the semantic structure of the domain. Further, we illustrate the use of technology for knowledge modelling and sharing, and we briefly describe how the results of terminology work may be stored in a term bank in order to support common understanding and efficient communication. Moreover, terminological ontologies may lay the foundation for data models for disaster management systems, technologies involving Artificial Intelligence, and building blocks of semantic technologies.