Pandemic Vulnerability Knowledge Visualisation for Strategic Decision-Making: A COVID-19 Index for Government Response in Australia

Purpose: This study aims to develop a pandemic vulnerability knowledge visualisation index to support the strategic decision-making efforts of authorities. Design/methodology/approach: First, the key vulnerability factors from the literature are identified. Second, using the vulnerability factors as indicators, a composite index is developed. Last, from the index values, a set of vulnerability knowledge maps, showing the vulnerability hotspots, are prepared. Findings: Ten indicators are identified as vulnerability factors that could significantly impact the virus spread risks. Verifying the identified hotspots against the recorded infected cases and deaths has evidenced the usefulness of the index. Determining and visualising the high-vulnerability locations and communities could help in informed strategic decision-making and responses of the authorises to the pandemic. Originality/value: The study demonstrates that the developed pandemic vulnerability knowledge visualisation index is particularly appropriate in the context of Australia. Nonetheless, by replicating the methodologic steps of the study, customised versions can be developed for other country contexts. Keywords: knowledge visualisation; strategic decision-making; community vulnerability; COVID-19; government response; Australia Paper type: Research paper</p

Urban Analytics with Social Media Data: Foundations, Applications and Platforms.[ 1st Edition ed.]

The use of data science and urban analytics has become a defining feature of smart cities. This timely book is a clear guide to the use of social media data for urban analytics. The book presents the foundations of urban analytics with social media data, along with real world applications and insights on the platforms we use today. It looks at social media analytics platforms, cyberphysical data analytics platforms, crowd detection platforms, city as a platform and city as a sensor for platform urbanism. The book provides examples to illustrate how we apply and analyse social media data to determine disaster severity, assist authorities with pandemic policy and capture public perceptions on smart cities. This book is a useful reference for those involved with and researching social, data and urban analytics and informatics.<br/

Multisource Open Geospatial Big Data Fusion: Application of the Method to Demarcate Urban Agglomeration Footprints

Urban agglomeration is a continuous urban spread and generally comprises a main city at the core and its adjoining growth areas. These agglomerations are studied using different concepts, theories, models, criteria, indices, and approaches, where population distribution and its associated characteristics are mainly used as the main parameters. Given the difficulties in accurately demarcating these agglomerations, novel methods and approaches have emerged in recent years. The use of geospatial big data sources to demarcate urban agglomeration is one of them. This promising method, however, has not yet been studied widely and hence remains an understudied area of research. This study explores using a multisource open geospatial big data fusion ap-proach to demarcate urban agglomeration footprint. The paper uses the Southern Coastal Belt of Sri Lanka as the testbed to demonstrate the capabilities of this novel approach. The methodological approach considers both the urban form and functions related to the parameters of cities in defining urban agglomeration footprint. It employs near-real-time data in defining the urban function-related parameters. The results disclosed that employing urban form and function-related parameters delivers more accurate demarcation outcomes than single parameter use. Hence, the utilization of a multisource geospatial big data fusion approach for the demarcation of urban agglomeration footprint informs urban authorities in developing appropriate policies for managing urban growth

Opportunities and challenges of and perceptions on digital technology-driven innovative disaster management approaches

This thesis examines the opportunities of and perceptions on digital technology driven innovative approaches such as crowdsourcing and artificial intelligence-based game playing exercises to manage disasters. The study first identified unique attributes and characters of crowdsourcing and AI-based gamification to be used in disaster emergencies. The methodology developed in the study used location related social media data to assess disaster severity and use of AI-based gamified applications to increase disaster related community awareness. This study also, examined user perceptions and user engagements towards social media and AI-based gamifications related to disasters

Imageability and legibility: cognitive analysis and visibility assessment in Galle heritage city

The concepts of imageability and legibility are important aspects of urban design. Many scholars use the terms “imageability” and “legibility” interchangeably, usually examining one concept and applying the implications to the other. This research explores the relationship between these two concepts by answering the research questions: 1. how do people perceive the saliency of landmarks (imageability) and 2. how does the spatial configuration facilitate the visibility level of landmarks (legibility)? The Galle Heritage City in Sri Lanka is considered as the case study. The first part of the empirical study is to assess the level of imageability of urban space users by completing 100 cognitive maps and producing a composite cognitive map that indicates the structural landmarks’ salience or the level of imageability. The second part is the level of legibility of the landmarks by employing the visibility assessment process and the third part compares the two results with a concurrence matrix. The findings highlight that there is a positive relationship between people’s perception (imageability) and level of visibility (legibility). Further, imageability mostly depends on semantic properties than legibility, but legibility predominantly depends on structural properties and visual properties are almost equally important to both concepts.&nbsp

Image of a City through Big Data Analytics: Colombo from the Lens of Geo-Coded Social Media Data

The image of a city represents the sum of beliefs, ideas, and impressions that people have of that city. Mostly, city images are assessed through direct or indirect interviews and cognitive mapping exercises. Such methods consume more time and effort and are limited to a small number of people. However, recently, people tend to use social media to express their thoughts and experiences of a place. Taking this into consideration, this paper attempts to explore city images through social media big data, considering Colombo, Sri Lanka, as the testbed. The aim of the study is to examine the image of a city through Lynchian elements—i.e., landmarks, paths, nodes, edges, and districts—by using community sentiments expressed and images posted on social media platforms. For that, this study conducted various analyses—i.e., descriptive, image processing, sentiment, popularity, and geo-coded social media analyses. The study findings revealed that: (a) the community sentiments toward the same landmarks, paths, nodes, edges, and districts change over time; (b) decisions related to locating landmarks, paths, nodes, edges, and districts have a significant impact on community cognition in perceiving cities; and (c) geo-coded social media data analytics is an invaluable approach to capture the image of a city. The study informs urban authorities in their placemaking efforts by introducing a novel methodological approach to capture an image of a city

Disasters expose gaps in emergency services’ social media use

Australia has borne the brunt of several major disasters in recent years, including drought, bushfires, floods and cyclones. The increasing use of social media is changing how we prepare for and respond to these disasters. Not only emergency services but also their social media are now much-sought-after sources of disaster information and warnings. We studied Australian emergency services’ social media use in times of disaster. Social media can provide invaluable and time-critical information to both emergency services and communities at risk. But we also found problems

How are smart city concepts and technologies perceived and utilized? A systematic geo-Twitter analysis of smart cities in Australia

“Smart cities” is a hot topic in debates about urban policy and practice across the globe. There is, however, limited knowledge and understanding about trending smart city concepts and technologies; relationships between popular smart city concepts and technologies; policies that influence the perception and utilization of smart city concepts and technologies. The aim of this study is to evaluate how smart city concepts and technologies are perceived and utilized in cities. The methodology involves a social media analysis approach—i.e., systematic geo-Twitter analysis—that contains descriptive, content, policy, and spatial analyses. For the empirical investigation, the Australian context is selected as the testbed. The results reveal that: (a) innovation, sustainability, and governance are the most popular smart city concepts; (b) internet-of-things, artificial intelligence, and autonomous vehicle technology are the most popular technologies; (c) a balanced view exists on the importance of both smart city concepts and technologies; (d) Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane are the leading Australian smart cities; (e) systematic geo-Twitter analysis is a useful methodological approach for investigating perceptions and utilization of smart city concepts and technologies. The findings provide a clear snapshot of community perceptions on smart city concepts and technologies, and can inform smart city policymaking.</p

How engaging are disaster management related social media channels? The case of Australian state emergency organisations

Social media is increasingly becoming a formal tool of communication across the world. For example, state emergency organisations maintain social media channels to share information with millions of people. While community engagement through social media has become a trend across the world, measuring community engagement levels of such social media channels is a highly time demanding, and also an understudied, but important, area of research. This paper, through an empirical investigation, addresses the question of how engaging disaster management related social media channels are. The study adopted five indices—i.e., popularity, commitment, virality, engagement, and utilisation—in order to evaluate the levels of community engagement by various social media channels. As the case study, official Facebook and Twitter pages maintained by the state emergency organisations of three Australian states, namely New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland, were scrutinised. The results revealed that: (a) Social media acts as a promising vehicle to capture dispersed community knowledge on disaster management, but it still needs more utilisation; (b) Publishing social media posts with images and animated maps increases community engagement levels, and; (c) Social media posts, with an aim to increase the situation awareness, receive higher community attention than the other posts

Gamifying Community Education for Enhanced Disaster Resilience: An Effectiveness Testing Study from Australia

Providing convenient and effective online education is important for the public to be better prepared for disaster events. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of such education is questionable due to the limited use of online tools and platforms, which also results in narrow community outreach. Correspondingly, understanding public perceptions of disaster education methods and experiences for the adoption of novel methods is critical, but this is an understudied area of research. The aim of this study is to understand public perceptions towards online disaster education practices for disaster preparedness and evaluate the effectiveness of the gamification method in increasing public awareness. This study utilizes social media analytics and conducts a gamification exercise. The analysis involved Twitter posts (n = 13,683) related to the 2019–2020 Australian bushfires, and surveyed participants (n = 52) before and after experiencing a gamified application—i.e., STOP Disasters! The results revealed that: (a) The public satisfaction level is relatively low for traditional bushfire disaster education methods; (b) The study participants’ satisfaction level is relatively high for an online gamified application used for disaster education; and (c) The use of virtual and augmented reality was found to be promising for increasing the appeal of gamified applications, along with using a blended traditional and gamified approach.</p