Internet and Emergency Management: Prospects for the Future

This article reports on the growing value of Internet resources for the emergency management profession. The analysis has six components: (1) a brief history of the field prior to the introduction of the Internet; (2) an overview of the changes in emergency management since the introduction of the Internet and a summary of the characteristics of Internet communications; (3) some descriptions of how the Internet is currently used in flood, earthquake, and volcano research; (4) examples of Internet use as a tool for education; (5) federal and state employment of the Internet in emergency management during disasters and for public education and awareness between disasters; and (6) conclusions and suggestions for future research.