Applications of Social Networks and Crowdsourcing for Disaster Management Improvement

Social media and social networks are integral components of our daily personal, professional, and community lives with Facebook, Friendster, and Twitter alone having > 750,000,000 registered users worldwide. All types of communication modalities are utilized in disasters for a variety of purposes. Experience with Exercise 24 and the Haiti Earthquake and public health response amplify both the power of social media and social networks and the need to research, understand, refine, and train in their utilization in disaster management. A Haiti Epidemic Advisory System was established to provide a mechanism for care providers to report health status in camps and treatment centers, exchange technical and logistical information, provide reach-back services such as GIS mapping and data shepherding, and provide a platform for emotional support. This information was incorporated into additional platforms including Haiti User Defined Operational Picture (UDOP) and Haiti Medical/Public Health Information Sharing Enterprise (MPHISE). Successes in the systems were seen in the early warning provided for cholera and social stress, the ability to link on-the-ground resources with local, national, and international assets, and the ability to inform policy makers through real-time reporting and advanced visualization. Many challenges were highlighted that deserve future study. These include: (1) how to manage the extreme volume of data flow including rating, ranking, filtering, and archiving; (2) how to effectively use social media and networks for response; (3) how to provide visualization in temporal and geospatial terms; and (4) how integrate social media with traditional media and official communications in an effective risk communication matrix.

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How Social Networks have become the “Panacea” or “Protective Firepower” of Flood Victims: A case of community flood disaster management in Sri Lanka

Academic Platform Journal of Natural Hazards and Disaster Management ◽

10.52114/apjhad.998181 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ananda Y. KARUNARATHNA

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Sri Lanka ◽

Disaster Management ◽

Flood Disaster

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A Hierarchical Decision-Making Framework in Social Networks for Efficient Disaster Management

ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation ◽

10.1145/3490027 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

pp. 1-26

Author(s):

Seunghan Lee ◽

Saurabh Jain ◽

Young-Jun Son

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Social Networks ◽

Disaster Management ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Management Policy ◽

Strategy Development ◽

Opinion Formation ◽

Hierarchical Decision Making ◽

Hierarchical Decision ◽

Decision Making Framework

One of the major challenges faced by the current society is developing disaster management strategies to minimize the effects of catastrophic events. Disaster planning and strategy development phases of this urgency require larger amounts of cooperation among communities or individuals in society. Social networks have also been playing a crucial role in the establishment of efficient disaster management planning. This article proposes a hierarchical decision-making framework that would assist in analyzing two imperative information flow processes (innovation diffusion and opinion formation) in social networks under the consideration of community detection. The proposed framework was proven to capture the heterogeneity of individuals using cognitive behavior models and evaluate its impact on diffusion speed and opinion convergence. Moreover, the framework demonstrated the evolution of communities based on their inter-and intracommunication. The simulation results with real social network data suggest that the model can aid in establishing an efficient disaster management policy using social sensing and delivery.

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Building Community Resilience: What Can the United States Learn From Experiences in Other Countries?

Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness ◽

10.1001/dmp.2012.15 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 292-301 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Melinda Moore ◽

Anita Chandra ◽

Kevin C. Feeney

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Natural Disasters ◽

Disaster Management ◽

Community Education ◽

Community Resilience ◽

The United States ◽

Economic Security ◽

Community Empowerment ◽

Exemplary Practices ◽

Five Elements

AbstractObjectivesCommunity resilience (CR) is emerging as a major public policy priority within disaster management and is one of two key pillars of the December 2009 US National Health Security Strategy. However, there is no clear agreement on what key elements constitute CR. We examined exemplary practices from international disaster management to validate the elements of CR, as suggested by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 21 (HSPD-21), to potentially identify new elements and to identify practices that could be emulated or adapted to help build CR.MethodsWe extracted detailed information relevant to CR from unpublished case studies we had developed previously, describing exemplary practices from international natural disasters occurring between 1985 and 2005. We then mapped specific practices against the five elements of CR suggested by HSPD-21.ResultsWe identified 49 relevant exemplary practices from 11 natural disasters in 10 countries (earthquakes in Mexico, India, and Iran; volcanic eruption in Philippines; hurricanes in Honduras and Cuba; floods in Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Mozambique; tsunami in Indian Ocean countries; and typhoon in Vietnam). Of these, 35 mapped well against the five elements of CR: community education, community empowerment, practice, social networks, and familiarity with local services; 15 additional practices were related to physical security and economic security. The five HSPD-21 CR elements and two additional ones we identified were closely related to one another; social networks were especially important to CR.ConclusionsWhile each disaster is unique, the elements of CR appear to be broadly applicable across countries and disaster settings. Our descriptive study provides retrospective empirical evidence that helps validate, and adds to, the elements of CR suggested by HSPD-21. It also generates hypotheses about factors contributing to CR that can be tested in future analytic or experimental research. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2013;7:292-301)

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Military Involvement in Disaster Preparedness, Organisation, and Disaster Relief — Civilian Military Co-Operation (CIMIC)

Prehospital and Disaster Medicine ◽

10.1017/s1049023x00009511 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 17 (S2) ◽

pp. S25

Author(s):

Rannveig Bremer Fjær ◽

Knut Ole Sundnes

Keyword(s):

Disaster Management ◽

Disaster Preparedness ◽

Disaster Relief ◽

Humanitarian Assistance ◽

Humanitarian Emergencies ◽

Military Involvement ◽

Military Forces

In frequent humanitarian emergencies during the last decades, military forces increasingly have been engaged through provision of equipment and humanitarian assistance, and through peace-support operations. The objective of this study was to evaluate how military resources could be used in disaster preparedness as well as in disaster management and relief.

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