Using GIS as a Tool for Mitigating Geologic Hazards and Managing Natural Disasters

GIS is a versatile tool that has widespread application before, during, and after catastrophic geologic events. This research project analyzes results from three recently published case studies each corresponding to a point along the crisis response timeline. Planning for various geologic crises is critical, as demonstrated by Tran and others (2009), who utilized GIS to analyze risk factors and map flood hazards in Vietnam. GIS is also an invaluable tool for search and research activities during a natural disaster. These situations require quick response to ensure fast resolution, and GIS can be rapidly deployed through a four step progression in a search and rescue operation (Pfau and Blanford, 2018). In the aftermath of geologic crises, GIS can be deployed to help distribute and coordinate disaster relief efforts. Using Leon County, Florida as a study area, Horner and Downs (2010) used GIS to create a distribution network for relief efforts in the event of a hurricane. While GIS is best known for its widespread use in disaster management planning, it is also an important tool for rapidly responding to emergencies and for organizing post-disaster relief efforts. These studies demonstrate that GIS technologies are highly versatile before, during, and after geologic crisis events. As such, GIS should be viewed as an important strategy in geologic crisis hazard management

Mapping Crisis: Participation, Datafication, and Humanitarianism in the Age of Digital Mapping

This book brings together critical perspectives on the role that mapping people, knowledges and data now plays in humanitarian work, both in cartographic terms and through data visualisations. Since the rise of Google Earth in 2005, there has been an explosion in the use of mapping tools to quantify and assess the needs of the poor, including those affected by climate change and the wider neo-liberal agenda. Yet, while there has been a huge upsurge in the data produced around these issues, the representation of people remains questionable. Some have argued that representation has diminished in humanitarian crises as people are increasingly reduced to data points. In turn, this data becomes ever more difficult to analyse without vast computing power, leading to a dependency on the old colonial powers to refine the data of the poor, before selling it back to them. These issues are not entirely new, and questions around representation, participation and humanitarianism can be traced back beyond the speeches of Truman, but the digital age throws these issues back to the fore, as machine learning, algorithms and big data centres take over the process of mapping the subjugated and subaltern. This book questions whether, as we map crises, it is the map itself that is in crisis

Mapping Crisis

The digital age has thrown questions of representation, participation and humanitarianism back to the fore, as machine learning, algorithms and big data centres take over the process of mapping the subjugated and subaltern. Since the rise of Google Earth in 2005, there has been an explosion in the use of mapping tools to quantify and assess the needs of those in crisis, including those affected by climate change and the wider neo-liberal agenda. Yet, while there has been a huge upsurge in the data produced around these issues, the representation of people remains questionable. Some have argued that representation has diminished in humanitarian crises as people are increasingly reduced to data points. In turn, this data has become ever more difficult to analyse without vast computing power, leading to a dependency on the old colonial powers to refine the data collected from people in crisis, before selling it back to them. This book brings together critical perspectives on the role that mapping people, knowledges and data now plays in humanitarian work, both in cartographic terms and through data visualisations, and questions whether, as we map crises, it is the map itself that is in crisis

Data and the city – accessibility and openness. a cybersalon paper on open data

This paper showcases examples of bottom–up open data and smart city applications and identifies lessons for future such efforts. Examples include Changify, a neighbourhood-based platform for residents, businesses, and companies; Open Sensors, which provides APIs to help businesses, startups, and individuals develop applications for the Internet of Things; and Cybersalon’s Hackney Treasures. a location-based mobile app that uses Wikipedia entries geolocated in Hackney borough to map notable local residents. Other experiments with sensors and open data by Cybersalon members include Ilze Black and Nanda Khaorapapong's The Breather, a "breathing" balloon that uses high-end, sophisticated sensors to make air quality visible; and James Moulding's AirPublic, which measures pollution levels. Based on Cybersalon's experience to date, getting data to the people is difficult, circuitous, and slow, requiring an intricate process of leadership, public relations, and perseverance. Although there are myriad tools and initiatives, there is no one solution for the actual transfer of that data

Leveraging Geotagged Social Media to Monitor Spatial Behavior During Population Movements Triggered by Hurricanes

In a world of increased mobility and interconnectedness, the study of spatial behavior becomes more relevant than ever. However, multiple researchers have highlighted that the understanding of these dynamic processes has reached a bottleneck derived from the rigidity of traditional spatial behavior inquiry methods and the unavailability of trustworthy and relevant information. These difficulties are even more prominent during emergencies and disasters as these events often create scenarios where spatial behavior does not follow regular and logical patterns and where conventional mobility datasets are often skewed or not existent. Thus, many scholars working within the spatial behavior sub-discipline are pursuing innovative data collection methods to deepen the understanding of human spatial behavior. Researchers see digital geospatial trace data, also known as passive citizen sensor data, as one of the most promising opportunities to develop and test new hypotheses on spatial behavior. Nevertheless, the application of these new methods has not been fully explored within the hazard/disaster discipline for spatial behavior purposes under stressed situations. This dissertation investigates the suitability of geotagged social media (Twitter) as an innovative approach for the study of spatial behavior of people in stressed contexts and responds to three main research questions: 1) How well do geotagged social media estimate hurricane evacuation compliance? 2) To what extent is geotagged social media amenable for determining hurricane evacuation behavior? 3) How suitable is geotagged social media to evaluate post-disaster displacement and tourist flows? The dissertation therefore not only attempts to develop a new method to estimate the number of movements associated with the different stages of an emergency but also tries to answer long-standing questions about the response of different population sub-groups (residential status, gender, age, race/ethnicity) before, during, and after hurricanes. Results confirm the potential of geotagged social media to tackle some of the deficiencies of traditional approaches, particularly offering more timely, dynamic, and affordable information about the evacuation and post-disaster population movements. In addition, results demonstrate that the Twitter-based approach complements survey-based methods as it permits accessing underrepresented groups in traditional approaches such as the young, short-term residents, and racial/ethnic minorities. Although the representativeness of Twitter samples is still debatable and needs further research, this method to investigate emergency-triggered population movements can ultimately improve our understanding of the response and recovery phases of a disaster

Critical point of view: a Wikipedia reader

For millions of internet users around the globe, the search for new knowledge begins with Wikipedia. The encyclopedia’s rapid rise, novel organization, and freely offered content have been marveled at and denounced by a host of commentators. Critical Point of View moves beyond unflagging praise, well-worn facts, and questions about its reliability and accuracy, to unveil the complex, messy, and controversial realities of a distributed knowledge platform. The essays, interviews and artworks brought together in this reader form part of the overarching Critical Point of View research initiative, which began with a conference in Bangalore (January 2010), followed by events in Amsterdam (March 2010) and Leipzig (September 2010). With an emphasis on theoretical reflection, cultural difference and indeed, critique, contributions to this collection ask: What values are embedded in Wikipedia’s software? On what basis are Wikipedia’s claims to neutrality made? How can Wikipedia give voice to those outside the Western tradition of Enlightenment, or even its own administrative hierarchies? Critical Point of View collects original insights on the next generation of wiki-related research, from radical artistic interventions and the significant role of bots to hidden trajectories of encyclopedic knowledge and the politics of agency and exclusion