The 12th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS), Corfu, Greece, 2018 EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS IN A DIGITALISATION ERA: KEY CHARACTERISTICS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH Nygård, Henriette, University of Agder, Norway, henrin12@student.uia.no Lundh Broen, Monika, University of Agder, Norway, monikb09@student.uia.no Hustad, Eli, University of Agder, Norway, eli.hustad@uia.no Vassilakopoulou, Polyxeni, University of Agder, Norway, polyxenv@uia.no Abstract Early warning systems (EWS) can enable governments, communities and individuals to take timely action and reduce the impact of hazardous events. Modern systems for early warnings can be quintes- sential Government 3.0 endeavours utilising technologies towards deliver warnings that are as relia- ble and timely as possible through civic and enterprise collaboration locally and internationally. This paper reviews prior literature on early warning systems for Flood, Landslide and Earthquake Man- agement. The key characteristics identified are: a) on the technical side the blending of “traditional” information and communication technologies with disruptive technologies such as data analytics, b)“soft” prerequisites for the sociotechnical arrangements including local knowledge, established standards and defined strategies and c) a set of systemic properties of critical importance related to usability, data handling velocity and integration/interoperability. These findings are consolidated in an overall framework. The systematic analysis of prior research output reveals gaps and areas for further investigation related to local knowledge, usability and the role of consumer device sensors. Keywords: Early Warning Systems, sociotechnical systems, literature review brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Agder University Research Archive