Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Crowdsourcing and ICT in disaster management

Crowdsourcing and ICT in disaster management

Crowdsourcing: Crowd-sourcing is a method of information collection that utilizes data collected from volunteers. This has been extensively used in disaster management by providing critical information to fill the gaps and  thereby complements the disaster response efforts. It is being increasingly used to produce information before a disaster takes place and thus aiding in disaster preparedness.

ICT: Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are used in anticipating, communicating and organizing actions before, during and after disaster events.

'Sahana' and 'Ushahidi' are two software programs that focus on crisis management and are integrated with GIS.

The lifecycle of a crowdsourced emergency report consists of:
-the local observer
-a web-user with some knowledge of linked open-data and
-the information manager working for a relief organisation


Crowdsourcing linked open data is the next step towards a full exploitation of crowdsourced information in disaster management.

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