e-Government Integration with Web Services and Alerts: A Case Study on an Emergency Route Advisory System in Hong Kong

Quick and efficient response to emergency is important for every city. This depends on the quality of the dispatch of emergency service to the scene and back to hospital or other governmental offices. To provide the path of the shortest traveling time is a difficult task, especially if there is traffic jam near the scene. In this paper, we formulate a conceptual model for the transport network and Emergency Route Advisory System (ERAS) implementation architecture handle the emergency response. The ERAS requires information integration from various governmental departments and public services through Web services, such as maintaining the databases of transportation information and traffic condition. Making use of such information, a challenge is to find a time-efficient or cost-effective path intelligently. Our ERAS interacts with the call centers of emergency service departments (such as the police, fire services, and ambulances) through alert mechanisms to integrate emergency processes. Through this complex case study, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the use of Web services and alerts in e-Government information and process integration.