In the field of precautionary radiation protection and disaster response, the amount of information and the number of its sources is steadily increasing. Central compilation and instant availability of information for all involved authorities becomes more and more important. In this context the structured presentation of documents on a web server in terms of an "Electronic Situation Display" (ESD) has been established. In Germany, there are several Electronic Situation Display prototypes run by federal and state authorities for various purposes and using different technical approaches. The systems of the federal states focus on workflow management. They provide emergency log books and information on the implementation of countermeasures for disaster response authorities. The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) tasked the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) to develop the Federal Electronic Situation Display (ELAN) that is mainly used as an information platform for decision making in case of nuclear emergencies. Documents containing radiological data or results from Decision Support Systems are almost automatically integrated into ELAN. Read and write permissions for users are managed by a concept of specific roles. The federal ESD and the systems of the federal states will be coordinated in order to achieve a better harmonisation. Interfaces for data exchange and data processing must be defined. Authorities of the federal states can use protected areas within the federal ESD where information is kept confidential for internal use before it is distributed to other states and federal authorities. In addition, key information of Electronic Situation Displays from the federal states can automatically be integrated into ELAN. Several task groups of the IAEA are working on the development and realization of a prototype for an information platform harmonising ESDs on an international level.

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