Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio

Smartening the Environment using Wireless Sensor Networks in a Developing Country

The miniaturization process of various sensing devices has become a reality by enormous research and advancements accomplished in Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) lithography. Regardless of such extensive efforts in optimizing the hardware, algorithm, and protocols for networking, there still remains a lot of scope to explore how these innovations can all be tied together to design Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) for smartening the surrounding environment for some practical purposes. In this paper we explore the prospects of wireless sensor networks and propose a design level framework for developing a smart environment using WSNs, which could be beneficial for a developing country like Bangladesh. In connection to this, we also discuss the major aspects of wireless sensor networks.Comment: 5 page

The Role of the Internet of Things in Network Resilience

Disasters lead to devastating structural damage not only to buildings and transport infrastructure, but also to other critical infrastructure, such as the power grid and communication backbones. Following such an event, the availability of minimal communication services is however crucial to allow efficient and coordinated disaster response, to enable timely public information, or to provide individuals in need with a default mechanism to post emergency messages. The Internet of Things consists in the massive deployment of heterogeneous devices, most of which battery-powered, and interconnected via wireless network interfaces. Typical IoT communication architectures enables such IoT devices to not only connect to the communication backbone (i.e. the Internet) using an infrastructure-based wireless network paradigm, but also to communicate with one another autonomously, without the help of any infrastructure, using a spontaneous wireless network paradigm. In this paper, we argue that the vast deployment of IoT-enabled devices could bring benefits in terms of data network resilience in face of disaster. Leveraging their spontaneous wireless networking capabilities, IoT devices could enable minimal communication services (e.g. emergency micro-message delivery) while the conventional communication infrastructure is out of service. We identify the main challenges that must be addressed in order to realize this potential in practice. These challenges concern various technical aspects, including physical connectivity requirements, network protocol stack enhancements, data traffic prioritization schemes, as well as social and political aspects

Data modelling for emergency response

Emergency response is one of the most demanding phases in disaster management. The fire brigade, paramedics, police and municipality are the organisations involved in the first response to the incident. They coordinate their work based on welldefined policies and procedures, but they also need the most complete and up-todate information about the incident, which would allow a reliable decision-making.\ud There is a variety of systems answering the needs of different emergency responders, but they have many drawbacks: the systems are developed for a specific sector; it is difficult to exchange information between systems; the systems offer too much or little information, etc. Several systems have been developed to share information during emergencies but usually they maintain the nformation that is coming from field operations in an unstructured way.\ud This report presents a data model for organisation of dynamic data (operational and situational data) for emergency response. The model is developed within the RGI-239 project ‘Geographical Data Infrastructure for Disaster Management’ (GDI4DM)

Social Media for Cities, Counties and Communities

Social media (i.e., Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube) and other tools and services with user- generated content have made a staggering amount of information (and misinformation) available. Some government officials seek to leverage these resources to improve services and communication with citizens, especially during crises and emergencies. Yet, the sheer volume of social data streams generates substantial noise that must be filtered. Potential exists to rapidly identify issues of concern for emergency management by detecting meaningful patterns or trends in the stream of messages and information flow. Similarly, monitoring these patterns and themes over time could provide officials with insights into the perceptions and mood of the community that cannot be collected through traditional methods (e.g., phone or mail surveys) due to their substantive costs, especially in light of reduced and shrinking budgets of governments at all levels. We conducted a pilot study in 2010 with government officials in Arlington, Virginia (and to a lesser extent representatives of groups from Alexandria and Fairfax, Virginia) with a view to contributing to a general understanding of the use of social media by government officials as well as community organizations, businesses and the public. We were especially interested in gaining greater insight into social media use in crisis situations (whether severe or fairly routine crises, such as traffic or weather disruptions)

Modeling emergency management data by UML as an extension of geographic data sharing model: AST approach

Applying GIS functionality provides a powerful decision support in various application areas and the basis to integrate policies directed to citizens, business, and governments. The focus is changing toward integrating these functions to find optimal solutions to complex problems. As an integral part of this approach, geographic data sharing model for Turkey were developed as a new approach that enables using the data corporately and effectively. General features of this model are object-oriented model, based on ISO/TC211 standards and INSPIRE Data Specifications, describing nationwide unique object identifiers, and defining a mechanism to manage object changes through time. The model is fully described with Unified Modeling Language (UML) class diagram. This can be a starting point for geographic data providers in Turkey to create sector models like Emergency Management that has importance because of the increasing number of natural and man-made disasters. In emergency management, this sector model can provide the most appropriate data to many "Actors" that behave as emergency response organizations such as fire and medical departments. Actors work in "Sectors" such as fire department and urban security. Each sector is responsible for "Activities" such as traffic control, fighting dire, emission, and so on. "Tasks" such as registering incident, fire response, and evacuating area are performed by actors and part of activity. These tasks produce information for emergency response and require information based on the base data model. By this way, geographic data models of emergency response are designed and discussed with "Actor-Sector-Activity-Task" classes as an extension of the base model with some cases from Turkey

Research Directions in Information Systems for Humanitarian Logistics

This article systematically reviews the literature on using IT (Information Technology) in humanitarian logistics focusing on disaster relief operations. We first discuss problems in humanitarian relief logistics. We then identify the stage and disaster type for each article as well as the article’s research methodology and research contribution. Finally, we identify potential future research directions