Volunteered geographic information in natural hazard analysis : a systematic literature review of current approaches with a focus on preparedness and mitigation

With the rise of new technologies, citizens can contribute to scientific research via Web 2.0 applications for collecting and distributing geospatial data. Integrating local knowledge, personal experience and up-to-date geoinformation indicates a promising approach for the theoretical framework and the methods of natural hazard analysis. Our systematic literature review aims at identifying current research and directions for future research in terms of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) within natural hazard analysis. Focusing on both the preparedness and mitigation phase results in eleven articles from two literature databases. A qualitative analysis for in-depth information extraction reveals auspicious approaches regarding community engagement and data fusion, but also important research gaps. Mainly based in Europe and North America, the analysed studies deal primarily with floods and forest fires, applying geodata collected by trained citizens who are improving their knowledge and making their own interpretations. Yet, there is still a lack of common scientific terms and concepts. Future research can use these findings for the adaptation of scientific models of natural hazard analysis in order to enable the fusion of data from technical sensors and VGI. The development of such general methods shall contribute to establishing the user integration into various contexts, such as natural hazard analysis

Crowdsourcing as a tool for urban emergency management: lessons from the literature and typology

Recently, citizen involvement has been increasingly used in urban disaster prevention and management, taking advantage of new ubiquitous and collaborative technologies. This scenario has created a unique opportunity to leverage the work of crowds of volunteers. As a result, crowdsourcing approaches for disaster prevention and management have been proposed and evaluated. However, the articulation of citizens, tasks, and outcomes as a continuous flow of knowledge generation reveals a complex ecosystem that requires coordination efforts to manage interdependencies in crowd work. To tackle this challenging problem, this paper extends to the context of urban emergency management the results of a previous study that investigates how crowd work is managed in crowdsourcing platforms applied to urban planning. The goal is to understand how crowdsourcing techniques and quality control dimensions used in urban planning could be used to support urban emergency management, especially in the context of mining-related dam outages. Through a systematic literature review, our study makes a comparison between crowdsourcing tools designed for urban planning and urban emergency management and proposes a five-dimension typology of quality in crowdsourcing, which can be leveraged for optimizing urban planning and emergency management processes

Seafloor characterization using airborne hyperspectral co-registration procedures independent from attitude and positioning sensors

The advance of remote-sensing technology and data-storage capabilities has progressed in the last decade to commercial multi-sensor data collection. There is a constant need to characterize, quantify and monitor the coastal areas for habitat research and coastal management. In this paper, we present work on seafloor characterization that uses hyperspectral imagery (HSI). The HSI data allows the operator to extend seafloor characterization from multibeam backscatter towards land and thus creates a seamless ocean-to-land characterization of the littoral zone

Evaluating the Impact of Nature-Based Solutions: A Handbook for Practitioners

The Handbook aims to provide decision-makers with a comprehensive NBS impact assessment framework, and a robust set of indicators and methodologies to assess impacts of nature-based solutions across 12 societal challenge areas: Climate Resilience; Water Management; Natural and Climate Hazards; Green Space Management; Biodiversity; Air Quality; Place Regeneration; Knowledge and Social Capacity Building for Sustainable Urban Transformation; Participatory Planning and Governance; Social Justice and Social Cohesion; Health and Well-being; New Economic Opportunities and Green Jobs. Indicators have been developed collaboratively by representatives of 17 individual EU-funded NBS projects and collaborating institutions such as the EEA and JRC, as part of the European Taskforce for NBS Impact Assessment, with the four-fold objective of: serving as a reference for relevant EU policies and activities; orient urban practitioners in developing robust impact evaluation frameworks for nature-based solutions at different scales; expand upon the pioneering work of the EKLIPSE framework by providing a comprehensive set of indicators and methodologies; and build the European evidence base regarding NBS impacts. They reflect the state of the art in current scientific research on impacts of nature-based solutions and valid and standardized methods of assessment, as well as the state of play in urban implementation of evaluation frameworks

From MANET to people-centric networking: Milestones and open research challenges

In this paper, we discuss the state of the art of (mobile) multi-hop ad hoc networking with the aim to present the current status of the research activities and identify the consolidated research areas, with limited research opportunities, and the hot and emerging research areas for which further research is required. We start by briefly discussing the MANET paradigm, and why the research on MANET protocols is now a cold research topic. Then we analyze the active research areas. Specifically, after discussing the wireless-network technologies, we analyze four successful ad hoc networking paradigms, mesh networks, opportunistic networks, vehicular networks, and sensor networks that emerged from the MANET world. We also present an emerging research direction in the multi-hop ad hoc networking field: people centric networking, triggered by the increasing penetration of the smartphones in everyday life, which is generating a people-centric revolution in computing and communications

Flood risk management in sponge cities:The role of integrated simulation and 3D visualization

The Sponge City concept has been promoted as a major programme of work to address increasing flood risk in urban areas, in combination with wider benefits for water resources and urban renewal. However, realization of the concept requires collaborative engagement with a wide range of professionals and with affected communities. Visualization can play an important role in this process. In this research, a sponge city flood simulation and forecasting system has been built which combines hydrological data, topographic data, GIS data and hydrodynamic models in real-time and interactive display in a three-dimensional environment. Actual and design flood events in a pilot sponge city have been simulated. The validation results show that the simulated urban water accumulation process is consistent with the actual monitoring data. Use of advanced virtual reality technology can enable simulations to be placed in the wider design context including enhanced awareness of multiple functions of urban ecosystems. This procedure can therefore reduce the information communication gap and encourage innovation regarding low impact development required for sponge city construction