Knowledge Management in Civil Protection at the Example of Fire Brigades

Knowledge management is essential for successful disaster management. This paper conducts a Systematic Literature Review at the intersection of the knowledge management field and disaster management and examines the available body of literature. Fire departments are chosen as the focus group as they are the most prevalent emergency services. There are many publications that deal with knowledge management during the response phase of an emergency. Often, the literature focuses on the application of knowledge management in large-scale disasters to link the various organizations on-scene. What is missing in most approaches is a prior step of implementing and training the knowledge management system. Therefore, this literature review seeks to provide an overview of approaches for daily routines and small-to-medium incidents that serve as a training ground. However, literature on non-incident phases and smaller incidents is scarce. As information technologies are developing rapidly, there is no modern and recent description of the current use of knowledge management solutions in this area.