A natural experiment of social network formation and dynamics

10.1073/pnas.1404770112Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America112216595-660

Social media usage patterns during natural hazards

Natural hazards are becoming increasingly expensive as climate change and development are exposing communities to greater risks. Preparation and recovery are critical for climate change resilience, and social media are being used more and more to communicate before, during, and after disasters. While there is a growing body of research aimed at understanding how people use social media surrounding disaster events, most existing work has focused on a single disaster case study. In the present study, we analyze five of the costliest disasters in the last decade in the United States (Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, two sets of tornado outbreaks, and flooding in Louisiana) through the lens of Twitter. In particular, we explore the frequency of both generic and specific food-security related terms, and quantify the relationship between network size and Twitter activity during disasters. We find differences in tweet volume for keywords depending on disaster type, with people using Twitter more frequently in preparation for Hurricanes, and for real-time or recovery information for tornado and flooding events. Further, we find that people share a host of general disaster and specific preparation and recovery terms during these events. Finally, we find that among all account types, individuals with “average” sized networks are most likely to share information during these disasters, and in most cases, do so more frequently than normal. This suggests that around disasters, an ideal form of social contagion is being engaged in which average people rather than outsized influentials are key to communication. These results provide important context for the type of disaster information and target audiences that may be most useful for disaster communication during varying extreme events

Source credibility, risk communication and well-being: A conceptual framework

This paper intends to establish a conceptual framework and discuss theoretical issues related to understanding relationships between source credibility, risk communication and well-being in disaster management context.The key aim of the framework is to highlight the relationship between the variables in predicting well-being in Malaysian contexts.Few literature on source credibility, risk communication and well-being that constitute the building blocks of this model were discussed as the starting point for general framework.This concept paper discusses the relationships between variables and proposed an integrated model of the conceptual framework between the variables to fill in the gap identified from previous studies to establish a new context of disaster management

Adverse weather amplifies social media activity

Humanity spends an increasing proportion of its time interacting online. Scholars are intensively investigating the societal drivers and resultant impacts of this collective shift in our allocation of time and attention. Yet, the external factors that regularly shape online behavior remain markedly understudied. Do environmental factors alter rates of online activity? Here we show that adverse meteorological conditions markedly increase social media use in the United States. To do so, we employ climate econometric methods alongside over three and a half billion social media posts from tens of millions of individuals from both Facebook and Twitter between 2009 and 2016. We find that more extreme temperatures and added precipitation each independently amplify social media activity. Weather that is adverse on both the temperature and precipitation dimensions produces markedly larger increases in social media activity. On average across both platforms, compared to the temperate weather baseline, days colder than -5{\deg}C with 1.5-2cm of precipitation elevate social media activity by 35%. This effect is nearly three times the typical increase in social media activity observed on New Year's Eve in New York City. We observe meteorological effects on social media participation at both the aggregate and individual level, even accounting for individual-specific, temporal, and location-specific potential confounds

Beyond data collection: Objectives and methods of research using VGI and geo-social media for disaster management

This paper investigates research using VGI and geo-social media in the disaster management context. Relying on the method of systematic mapping, it develops a classification schema that captures three levels of main category, focus, and intended use, and analyzes the relationships with the employed data sources and analysis methods. It focuses the scope to the pioneering field of disaster management, but the described approach and the developed classification schema are easily adaptable to different application domains or future developments. The results show that a hypothesized consolidation of research, characterized through the building of canonical bodies of knowledge and advanced application cases with refined methodology, has not yet happened. The majority of the studies investigate the challenges and potential solutions of data handling, with fewer studies focusing on socio-technological issues or advanced applications. This trend is currently showing no sign of change, highlighting that VGI research is still very much technology-driven as opposed to theory- or application-driven. From the results of the systematic mapping study, the authors formulate and discuss several research objectives for future work, which could lead to a stronger, more theory-driven treatment of the topic VGI in GIScience.Carlos Granell has been partly funded by the Ramón y Cajal Programme (grant number RYC-2014-16913

Environmental Disasters and Individuals’ Emergency Preparedness:

Environmental disasters are becoming more frequent. These disasters not only include the most common natural disasters, but also include man-made disasters, such as public health, accident disasters, etc., which have caused greater damage to human society and cities. Because of the limitations of a single government-led model in emergency response, the emergency preparedness of communities, families and individuals are more important. In particular, the emergency preparedness psychology and behavior of individuals directly determine whether or not they can effectively protect themselves and their families in the first time of disaster. This Special Issue focuses on environmental disasters and individuals’ emergency preparedness in the perspective of psychology and behavior

Foundation to Promote Scholarship and Teaching 2012-2013 Awards

Proposal abstracts of 2012-2013 award recipients in a wide range of disciplinary areas