Lessons learned from Asian tsunami disaster: Sharing knowledge

Creating an organised common platform to capture, organise and share the knowledge on
disaster management strategies is considered vital to enhance the effectiveness of future disaster
management efforts. Hence, ensuring the availability and accessibility of accurate and reliable
disaster risk information when required entails an efficient system for knowledge sharing. This
paper highlights the importance of knowledge and good practice sharing in disaster
management strategies, and discusses key lessons learned from 2004 Asian tsunami,
particularly relating to the Sri Lankan context. Good practices and lessons learned are discussed
on five different themes: social, technical, legal, operational and environmental. Further, the
ISLAND website is introduced and developed as part of a research aimed at increasing the
effectiveness of disaster management by facilitating the sharing of appropriate knowledge and
good practices.