Utilizing the Potential of the Affected Population and Prevalent Mobile Technology during Disaster Response: Propositions for a Literature Survey

Abstract

Despite the growing awareness of the untapped potential of the affected population in a disaster situation, their inclusion in a disaster management is extremely limited. This study aims to survey the literature to see whether utilizing the affected people and prevalent mobile technology can be used during disaster response. The idea is to provide the affected with a way to lead themselves to safety and empower them to serve as distributed active sources of information. This way, those people will reach safety by themselves, while at the same time helping to construct a clear image of the disaster situation without burdening the already overwhelmed emergency services. This study examines knowledge derived from disaster sociology, draws on experience from recent disasters, and extrapolates current technological solutions. By establishing that such a solution is feasible, it offers a basis for empirical studies on a mobile technology that can be used during disaster response.Intelligent SystemsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc