Lessons from Harvey: Crisis Informatics for Urban Resilience

Date
2018
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kinder Institute for Urban Research
Abstract

Social media systems and crowdsourced data sites were incredibly active during Hurricane Harvey. Residents, first responders and officials all turned to these systems to impart information and make calls for assistance. These systems will likely continue to hold a central informational and communication role in future disasters. Analyzing the trends and information that come from these sources in real-time could aid the recovery process and help public agencies, first responders and researchers more quickly assess damages during and immediately after a disaster. This report demonstrates some of the work that could be done with this type of information. It suggests that public agencies work closely with social media companies and the operators of crowdsourced sites to install plans to incorporate these systems into the disaster recovery process.

Description
Residents, first responders and officials all turned to social media during Hurricane Harvey to impart information and make calls for assistance. This report demonstrates some of the work that could be done with this type of information. It suggests that public agencies work closely with social media companies to install plans to incorporate these systems into the disaster-recovery process. Social media sites operate as critical emergency communication venues during crises, telling us where people are located during a disaster, where they are moving and in some cases where they are checking in as “safe.” This report looks at how social media, in particular, Twitter, has been used to evaluate the spatial and temporal aspects of disaster and emergency situations, including terrorist attacks, earthquakes and floods.
Advisor
Degree
Type
Report
Keywords
Citation

Villegas, Carlos, Martinez, Matthew and Krause, Matthew. "Lessons from Harvey: Crisis Informatics for Urban Resilience." (2018) Rice University and Kinder Institute for Urban Research: https://doi.org/10.25611/np4y-3bil.

Has part(s)
Forms part of
Rights
Copyright ©2018 by Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research. All rights reserved.
Link to license
Citable link to this page