ROLE OF GIS, RFID AND HANDHELD COMPUTERS IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: AN EXPLORATORY CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

This paper underlines the task characteristics of the emergency management life cycle. Moreover, the characteristics of three ubiquitous technologies including RFID, handheld computers and GIS are discussed and further used as a criterion to evaluate their potential for emergency management tasks. Built on a rather loose interpretation of Task-technology Fit model, a conceptual model presented in this paper advocates that a technology that offers better features for task characteristics is more likely to be adopted in emergency management. Empirical findings presented in this paper reveal the significance of task characteristics and their role in evaluating the suitability of three ubiquitous technologies before their actual adoption in emergency management.