Leveraging Information Technology for Disaster Recovery: A Case Study of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Implementation for Facility Retrieval

摘要

Interest in utilizing radio frequency identification (RFID) methodology to facilitate disaster recovery management has risen substantially in recent years, especially in coastal regions that periodically suffer catastrophic losses due to natural disasters such as hurricanes. At this early stage of adoption, however, it is unclear how RFID technologies can best be integrated into the disaster recovery process and help individuals and organizations renew themselves after the crisis. This teaching case study evaluated the performance of three potential information technology solutions: (a) a global positioning system (GPS), (b) RFID and magnetic locators, and (c) a combined RFID/magnetic locator/GPS system. Experiments were conducted in order to assess the feasibility, reliability and cost of using RFID technologies in disaster recovery. A cost analysis showed that using RFID, magnetic locators, and GPS together reduces the cost of recovering utility facilities buried under storm debris by 26% compared to current methods. The results clearly demonstrate that RFID technology does indeed contribute to the efficient retrieval of utility facilities and help the community renew itself.