L. Efthymis et al.
tending school in times of disaster. During disasters, school buildings are destroyed, taking away the precious
lives of children and teachers and stalling access to education in the aftermath of disaster. Rebuilding these
schools can take years and is very costly. Disasters such as the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, where over
16,000 children died in schools that collapsed, or the earthquake in Sichuan Province in the People’s Republic of
China in 2008, where more than 80.000 school children lost their lives while attending school, are just a few
tragic examples of why more needs to be done to protect our children before disasters strikes [2].
Teaching children risk reduction and management skills is of great importance. Students of all ages can ac-
tively study and participate in school safety measures, and also work with teachers and other adults in the com-
munity towards minimizing risk before, during and after disastrous events. Furthermore, children traditionally
spread their knowledge to their families and communities. Educating a child is often equivalent to educating a
whole family. In this context, educational institutes, especially schools, constitute favorable environments for
the dissemination of knowledge for disasters and disaster management. In this scope, appropriate training for
teachers is the first step to disaster reduction education in school [3]-[5].
The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece) has developed a specialized e-learning course
for educators in Greece, which focuses on disaster management in schools and utilizes an innovative service
called Disaster Data Centre (DDC) to draw up-to-date data, information and references on recent major disasters
in Greece and worldwide to be used as educational material. Efficient education on disaster management protec-
tion measures and dissemination of up-to-date disaster information can contribute to the reduction of its impact
at schools. The innovative educational tool DDC has the unique ability to offer real-time information on disaster
events.
After completing the course, it is expected that educators will be able to communicate the knowledge on dis-
aster preparedness and management to children and their families, to participate in both pre and post disaster ac-
tivities for preparedness and mitigation of disaster in schools, to respond timely and effectively through in-
formed decision-making in the event of a disaster and to promote school building safety, all of which are key ac-
tion points in the unfortunate event of a calamity [5] [6].
2. The “Disaster Data Centre (DDC)” Service
Currently, data on catastrophic events, regarding their cause, effect and management are collected, recorded,
published, stored or archived by various public services responsible for preventing and managing disasters, the
mass media, researchers, in scientific publications, local public or private entities and individuals who witnessed
these events, or are somehow related to them. This accumulation of information, however, lacks structure and
organization, thus fails to be channeled promptly to the authorities and society [6].
Disaster Data Centre (DDC) is a service which utilizes a modern and technologically advanced system in or-
der to serve as an “Ark” which stores and preserves knowledge and information which may be lost or forgotten
after the catastrophic events have taken place. The Disaster Data Centre stores and preserves the countless in-
formation (recent and older) related to catastrophic events, organized and presented in a scientific and innova-
tive way, which allows easy retrieval of individual and combined information through queries. Emphasis has
been given on interactive communication applications and direct communication of anyone interested. Separate
applications enable the public to submit documents, audiovisual material, testimony and opinions about an event.
The data entry is done through a special, user-friendly platform.
2.1. Software Architecture
An overview of the software architecture is presented in Figure 1.
The schema is divided in three layers: Web, Business and Data layer. Each layer acts as container of func-
tionalities. In the schema right section there is a security block which is vertical present because security func-
tionalities are layer-indep enden t.
The web layer contains the web page which is responsible for the delivery and formatting of information to
below layers for further processing or display. The web page in other words is the gate of users to our system.
Through web page users can search, add or modify content based on security permissions that apply.
The business layer contains data management and external applications blocks. Data management is a system
component that acts as intermediary between the upper software and the data. Data management exposes meth-
ods of managing the stored data without exposing or creating dependencies on the data storage mechanisms.
