Issue title: The Semantic Web for all

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Keßler, Carsten; | Hendrix, Chad;

Affiliations: CARSI, Department of Geography, Hunter College – City University of New York, USA. E-mail: [email protected] | United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Geneva, Switzerland. E-mail: [email protected]

Note: [] Corresponding author.

Note: [] Any opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not represent official positions of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Abstract: The Humanitarian eXchange Language (HXL) is a project by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that aims at refining data management and exchange for disaster response. Data exchange in this field, which often has to deal with chaotic environments heavily affected by an emergency such as a natural disaster or an armed conflict, still happens mostly manually. The goal of HXL is to contribute to the automatization of many of these processes, saving valuable time for staff in the field and improving the information flow for decision makers who have to allocate resources for response activities. This paper gives an overview of this initiative, which is set to significantly improve information exchange in the humanitarian domain. We introduce the HXL vocabulary, which provides a formal definition of the terminology used in this domain, and an initial set of tools and services that produce and consume HXL data. The HXL system infrastructure is introduced, along with its data management principles. The paper concludes with an outlook on the future of HXL and its role in the humanitarian ecosystem.

Keywords: Disaster management, humanitarian aid, linked open data, vocabulary, data management, tools

DOI: 10.3233/SW-130130

Journal: Semantic Web, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 5-21, 2015

Price: EUR 27.50