Methods of Interoperability and Integration of Disaster Management Systems

Abstract. The Tehran Municipality Disaster Mitigation and Management Organization operates multiple independent systems for earthquake disaster response, each with separate databases. This isolation leads to inefficiencies and increased complexity in seismic disaster management. This paper explores solutions to integrate and enable interoperability among these systems by comparing architectures such as microservices, service-oriented architecture (SOA), enterprise service bus (ESB), and event-driven architecture (EDA). The recommended approach combines microservices with technical interoperability using REST APIs, API Gateway, and Graph Query Language (GraphQL). The study emphasizes technical interoperability and suggests employing Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) processes to consolidate spatial and non-spatial data into a central database. To improve semantic interoperability, ontology-based data preprocessing is proposed. Integrating system and spatial data enhances stability, scalability, and preparedness in disaster management. Due to security constraints, the proposed framework remains theoretical and untested in operational settings. While direct validation was not possible, the solution is supported by comparative analysis of existing models and best practices. The key innovation is the hybrid use of microservice architecture with GraphQL, tailored for heterogeneous spatial and non-spatial systems in disaster management. This paper offers a modular, scalable, and semantically aware integration framework to inform future system implementations and policy decisions in seismic disaster response. A case study from Tehran Municipality District 2 illustrates the model’s relevance by highlighting spatial vulnerabilities such as aging buildings, population density, and fragmented geospatial layers, demonstrating real-world challenges and the necessity for the proposed architectural solution.