Copyright - Journal of the Association for Information Systems Emergency Response Information System Interoperability: Development of Chemical Incident Response Data Model Rui Chen^, Raj Sharman^, Nirupama Chakravarti*, H. Raghav Rao^ , *, Shambhu J Upadhyaya* ^ Department of Management Science and Systems * Department of Computer Science and Engineering State University of New York at Buffalo Amherst, NY 14260 {ruichen, rsharman, nc23, mgmtrao} @buffalo.edu, shambhu@cse.buffalo.edu Abstract Emergency response requires an efficient information supply chain for the smooth operations of intra- and inter-organizational emergency management processes. However, the breakdown of this information supply chain due to the lack of consistent data standards presents a significant problem. In this paper, we adopt a theory driven novel approach to develop a XML-based data model that prescribes a comprehensive set of data standards (semantics and internal structures) for emergency management to better address the challenges of information interoperability. Actual documents currently being used in mitigating chemical emergencies from a large number of incidents are used in the analysis stage. The data model development is guided by Activity Theory and is validated through a RFC-like process used in standards development. This paper applies the standards to the real case of a chemical incident scenario. Further, it complies with the national leading initiatives in emergency standards (National Information Exchange Model). - 1 -