Crowdsourcing the Disaster Management Cycle

Crowdsourcing is a communication platform that can be used during and after a disastrous event. Previous research in crisis crowdsourcing demonstrates its wide adoption for aiding response efforts by non-government organizations and public citizens. There is a gap in understanding the government use of crowdsourcing for emergency management, and in the use of crowdsourcing for mitigation and preparedness. This research aims to characterize crowdsourcing in all phases of the disaster management cycle by government agencies in Canada and the USA. Semi-structured interviews conducted with 22 government officials from both countries reveal that crisis crowdsourced information is used in all phases of the disaster management cycle, though direct crowdsourcing is yet to be applied in the pre-disaster phases. Emergency management officials and scholars have an opportunity to discover new ways to directly use crowdsourcing for mitigation and preparedness

Disaster management and emerging technologies: a performance-based perspective

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse how emerging technologies (ETs) impact on improving performance in disaster management (DM) processes and, concretely, their impact on the performance according to the different phases of theDM cycle (preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation). Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is based on a systematic review of the literature. Scopus, ProQuest, EBSCO and Web of Science were used as data sources, and an initial sample of 373 scientific articles was collected. After abstracts and full texts were read and refinements to the search were made, a final corpus of 69 publications was analysed using VOSviewer software for text mining and cluster visualisation. Findings – The results highlight how ETs foster the preparedness and resilience of specific systems when dealing with different phases of the DM cycle. Simulation and disaster risk reduction are the fields of major relevance in the application of ETs to DM. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the literature by adding the lenses of performance measurement, management and accountability in analysing the impact of ETs on DM. It thus represents a starting point for scholars to develop future research on a rapidly and continuously developing topic

Comunicação em Geociências na Gestão de Riscos e Desastres Ambientais

A divulgação de informações técnicas para públicos não técnicos é uma dificuldade enfrentada por todos os especialistas em ciências aplicadas. No caso da comunicação associada a gestão de riscos e desastres geológicos e ambientais, o problema não é tanto sobre quais as informações são passadas, mas como essas informações são compreendidas pelo público. Os deveres profissionais dos geocientistas vão além da aplicação de seus conhecimentos e habilidades passando também pela comunicação que deve se basear em princípios geoéticos. Sabe-se que a comunicação é um fator preventivo de desastres e é primordial para a gestão de riscos ambientais. O artigo tem como objetivo apresentar um diagnóstico da prática da comunicação de risco e desastres pela Defesa Civil de Contagem e as melhorias propostas a partir do diagnóstico realizado. Frente ao objetivo proposto, o estudo buscou responder as seguintes perguntas norteadoras: 1) quais os meios de comunicação utilizados pela Defesa Civil; 2) quais as características da comunicação nessa instituição; 3) quais as possibilidades de melhoria. Os métodos aplicados envolveram: entrevistas com agentes da Defesa Civil; análise de dados de telefonemas da população para o número de atendimento da Defesa Civil 199; observação e análise da prática de comunicação por meio de acompanhamento de ocorrências e visitas de campo; brainstorming sobre possíveis alternativas para fomentar a comunicação bilateral. O resultado do diagnóstico indica que a comunicação de riscos e desastres se dá majoritariamente de forma unilateral, e com maior atuação nas fases de gestão de riscos de prevenção e resposta, e há uma lacuna para a comunicação na fase de preparação para os desastres. Apresenta-se uma proposta pioneira para o município relacionada à comunicação de risco: um sistema de disponibilização, na internet (web map), de mapas de risco e de ocorrências atendidas pela Defesa Civil, bem como a sugestão de um aplicativo baseado em comunicação e colaboração bilateral. Espera-se que esse sistema, denominado de Georiscos Contagem, bem como o aplicativo, facilitem o acesso e a participação da população na gestão de riscos ambientais

Co-producing spatial information with citizens: Understanding practices, preferences, and challenges within government

In today’s era of digital media, collecting and sharing location-based information has become easier and more accessible for many people. This exchange of spatial information, created and shared by the public, is beneficial to different government operations such as disaster management, monitoring of air pollution, and effective planning. With these advancements of technology, as well as practices of information exchange, opportunities are emerging for governments to co-produce spatial information with citizens and acquire current and detailed information following the concept of ‘citizens as sensors’. Though these practices of co-production are becoming more common, there is a gap in understanding how governments are adopting, implementing, and managing co-production practices. Understanding these aspects is crucial, especially to evaluate the benefits, trends, and motivations associated with these practices. This research aims to address this gap, discussed in two main chapters: first, understanding the existing approaches and motivating factors for government co-producing spatial information; second, identifying the existing and potential challenges to implement a project for co-producing spatial information between government and citizens. To meet these research objectives, 18 officials from both local and national levels in North America and Europe were interviewed. The officials are affiliated with projects that are currently co-producing spatial information with citizens, or have potential tools or plans to implement the process. These semi-structured interviews reveal that at the local level, co-production practices involve collecting new information or observations of citizens and are also used to observe citizen preferences and practices. These insights are augmenting the existing operations and service delivery of government organizations with the frequent and detailed contribution of citizens. Furthermore, the role of technology and different partners such as private or research organizations were found to support government to undertake co-production approaches. The results from these interviews also indicate that both organizational and technical challenges prevail for adopting co-production processes. Based on these challenges, a set of best practices are also recommended for government. The overall study outlines the current contexts of government, trends of co-production of spatial information with citizens, and possible best practices for implementation and management of the co-production process

Reinventing the Social Scientist and Humanist in the Era of Big Data

This book explores the big data evolution by interrogating the notion that big data is a disruptive innovation that appears to be challenging existing epistemologies in the humanities and social sciences. Exploring various (controversial) facets of big data such as ethics, data power, and data justice, the book attempts to clarify the trajectory of the epistemology of (big) data-driven science in the humanities and social sciences

Supply chain agility in semiconductor shortage

The semiconductor shortage is an ongoing global crisis that has operationally and financially impacted companies’ supply chains due to the supply disruptions it caused. This crisis is a wake-up call for organizations to rethink agility in the supply chain. This Master’s thesis aims to study how supply chain agility can be utilized in disruption management during the semiconductor shortage. The conceptual framework of the thesis provides a link between the theories of supply chain agility and supply disruption management, which acts as a guideline for companies to plan agility in managing supply disruptions caused by the semiconductor shortage or similar crises. This research was conducted based on qualitative multi-case study through semi-structured interviews with five companies from different industries. The case companies are those operating mainly in Finland, whose product offerings are associated with semiconductors. The collected data was analyzed with thematic analysis to identify the implications of agility elements at different phases of the disruption management cycle. The conceptual framework of the thesis was developed through a synthesis of existing literature and refined based on the empirical findings. The findings suggest that it is important to apply supply chain agility in managing supply disruptions caused by the semiconductor shortage, due to this crisis's unpredictability and severity. In pre-disruption phase, successful implementation of proactive approaches requires alertness and accessibility enabled by risk management, market sensitivity and supply chain alignment. During and after the disruption, quick and flexible responses to sudden changes in supply are enabled by utilizing existing risk management practices in addition to operational flexibility and demand management. It is also important to have a recovery plan and to foster continuous learning from the crisis. Furthermore, maintaining agility throughout the whole crisis requires a culture of change, supportive top management, and strategic collaboration between supply chain partners as well as information technology capabilities

Assessing the social impacts of extreme weather events using social media

The frequency and severity of extreme weather events such as flooding, hurricanes/storms and heatwaves are increasing as a result of climate change. There is a need for information to better understand when, where and how these events are impacting people. However, there are currently limited sources of impact information beyond traditional meteorological observations. Social sensing, which is the use of unsolicited social media data to better understand real world events, is one method that may provide such information. Social sensing has successfully been used to detect earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, heatwaves and other weather hazards. Here social sensing methods are adapted to explore potential for collecting impact information for meteorologists and decision makers concerned with extreme weather events. After a review of the literature, three experimental studies are presented. Social sensing is shown to be effective for detection of impacts of named storms in the UK and Ireland. Topics of discussion and sentiment are explored in the period before, during and after a storm event. Social sensing is also shown able to detect high-impact rainfall events worldwide, validating results against a manually curated database. Additional events which were not known to this database were found by social sensing. Finally, social sensing was applied to heatwaves in three European cities. Building on previous work on heatwaves in the UK, USA and Australia, the methods were extended to include impact phrases alongside hazard-related phrases, in three different languages (English, Dutch and Greek). Overall, social sensing is found to be a good source of impact information for organisations that need to better understand the impacts of extreme weather. The research described in this project has been commercialised for operational use by meteorological agencies in the UK, including the Met Office, Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Policy responses to disaster management: a comparative case study of the BRICS countries to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Disaster management is a component that is responsible for ensuring the protection and safety of countries and their communities. The role of disaster management incudes, to organise the appropriate control mechanisms, allocate the necessary resources and follow the required practice policies. This is all done to prevent, prepare for, respond to as well as recover from a range of emergencies. Disaster management is utilised to respond to a range of disastrous events ranging from natural disasters, man-made disasters, biological disasters and technological disasters The COVID-19 pandemic presented a new set of challenges for countries to combat, which ultimately led to many revisiting their disaster management policy responses. Previous work has failed to address the disaster management policy responses that governments sought to implement particularly when dealing with pandemics. The main aim for governments was to implement effective disaster management policy responses which would result in reducing the spread and impact of the virus. For this, governments relied on restructuring existing disaster management policies to evoke greater powers to make decisions faster. This study sought to investigate the disaster management policy responses in BRICS countries through comparative case approach and SWOT analysis towards the COVID-19 pandemic. The study implemented a qualitative approach, secondary sources of information were used. Secondary sources of information such as articles, journals, books and government publications. These sources were fundamental towards this study because it provided the overall research that was examined in this study. Content thematic analysis was used to comprehend the information collected from texts to present arguments and grasp a coherent conclusion. Comparative case study approach was used for effective comparison among the chosen case studies. The formulation of themes was guided by the Disaster Management Model being mitigation, preparedness, prevention, recovery and response. The results of this study showed that the case studies possessed individual strengths and weaknesses. Due to the impact of the pandemic the policy responses varied based on population size, resources, leadership, accountability and preparedness. This concluded in varied disaster management policy responses that were effective during different stages of the pandemic

Exploring the data needs and sources for severe weather impact forecasts and warnings : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Emergency Management at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

Figures 2.4 & 2.5 are re-used with permission.The journal articles in Appendices J, L & M are republished under respective Creative Commons licenses. Appendix K has been removed from the thesis until 1 July 2022 in accordance with the American Meteorological Society Copyright Policy, but is available open access at https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-21-0093.1Early warning systems offer an essential, timely, and cost-effective approach for mitigating the impacts of severe weather hazards. Yet, notable historic severe weather events have exposed major communication gaps between warning services and target audiences, resulting in widespread losses. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has proposed Impact Forecasts and Warnings (IFW) to address these communication gaps by bringing in knowledge of exposure, vulnerability, and impacts; thus, leading to warnings that may better align with the position, needs, and capabilities of target audiences. A gap was identified in the literature around implementing IFWs: that of accessing the required knowledge and data around impacts, vulnerability, and exposure. This research aims to address this gap by exploring the data needs of IFWs and identifying existing and potential data sources to support those needs. Using Grounded Theory (GT), 39 interviews were conducted with users and creators of hazard, impact, vulnerability, and exposure (HIVE) data within and outside of Aotearoa New Zealand. Additionally, three virtual workshops provided triangulation with practitioners. In total, 59 people participated in this research. Resulting qualitative data were analysed using GT coding techniques, memo-writing, and diagramming. Findings indicate a growing need for gathering and using impact, vulnerability, and exposure data for IFWs. New insight highlights a growing need to model and warn for social and health impacts. Findings further show that plenty of sources for HIVE data are collected for emergency response and other uses with relevant application to IFWs. Partnerships and collaboration lie at the heart of using HIVE data both for IFWs and for disaster risk reduction. This thesis contributes to the global understanding of how hydrometeorological and emergency management services can implement IFWs, by advancing the discussion around implementing IFWs as per the WMO’s guidelines, and around building up disaster risk data in accordance with the Sendai Framework Priorities. An important outcome of this research is the provision of a pathway for stakeholders to identify data sources and partnerships required for implementing a hydrometeorological IFW system

Examining the disaster mitigation efforts in eThekwini Municipality: the case of Umlazi Township in South Africa.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Disaster mitigation in South Africa is characterised by poor implementation of policies, thus there are few interventions that prevent the disaster impact or the reoccurrence of damages. Previous studies (Van Niekerk, 2014; Paton and Johnston, 2017; CoGTA, 2018) have established that stakeholders react to a disaster after it happens and a few measures are then put in place for disaster mitigation. Previous studies, as mentioned above have tended to focus on lack of funds as an impediment to proper disaster mitigation coordination rather than focusing on how implementation of policies or how specific stakeholders can be a weak link in the mitigation process. Using a qualitative research design that employed in-depth interviews with key stakeholders (n = 7) and three focus group discussions (n = 18), this study sought to identify the nature and the degree of disasters and to find out what mitigation strategies were employed by the Municipality and their effectiveness, according to different role players in Umlazi Township eThekwini Municipality. Analysis of data revealed that floods and fire are the most common disasters in Umlazi and the disasters affect everyone in society. Better and stronger infrastructure was a common mitigation strategy recommended by participants. Effectiveness, however, was viewed as being limited. Emerging from the findings is the suggestion that a multi-pronged approach involving cooperation between the communities, ward committees and Municipal disaster management could be the effective means of curbing disasters. This study, which attempted to contribute to the growing corpus of literature and theory on disaster management, points to a need for political will among policymakers to ensure that issues of disaster management are prioritised in budgets and in decision-making.Author's Keywords:disaster mitigation,nature and degree of mitigation, floods, fire, better and stronger infrastructure