Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Limited studies consider if social media can be used in early warning systems or
to prevent loss of life during disasters (Wu et al.
2002
). However, some notable
examples where social media was important in preparedness (early warning) along
with response and recovery include the Red River fl ooding and the Oklahoma fi re in
2009 in the US (Twitter) (Starbird and Palen
2010
), the Mount Merapi Eruption in
2010 in Indonesia (Facebook, Twitter) (Nugroho
2011
), and the Great East Japan
Tsunami (Twitter) (Ichiguchi
2011
).
Local government, NGOs, and community organizations need to understand
local context and gain geospatial information about climatic variations and popula-
tion movements as they can be indicative of a forthcoming disaster and disaster
response improves when tracking population movements with mobile phone net-
work data (Bengtsson et al.
2011
). Anokwa et al. (
2009
) studied open source data
collection and realized an opportunity in Kenya for HIV/AIDS prevention and treat-
ment. This same method could also be applied to disaster early warning systems to
gather local data and open communication between vulnerable populations and
decision-makers (Anokwa et al.
2009
). Once the data is being transferred and col-
lected effectively, social media can be used by meteorological centers and govern-
ment to warn local communities of disaster risk.
In fact, one study by Chatfi eld and Brajawidagda (
2013
) analyzed tweets related
to the 2012 tsunami in Indonesia to understand if Twitter can be an effective tool for
early warning systems for Tsunamis, and if so, if it is possible to diffuse that infor-
mation quickly in order to avoid the disaster effectively. The authors demonstrated
that within 15 min of the earthquake, 4,102,730 Twitter followers were informed of
the potential for a tsunami by the early warning network in the region. The authors
concluded that Twitter is an effective tsunami early warning system due to its reach
and speed of communication. However, the authors stressed the importance for gov-
ernments to ensure transfer of EWS information effectively and without delay to the
civil society (Chatfi eld and Brajawidagda
2013
).
19.8.3
Limitations
Although social media can be an important tool in disaster early warning systems,
there exist some limitations (Ichiguchi
2011
; Gao et al.
2011
). These include issues
such as misallocation of response resources (Gao et al.
2011
), “network congestion”
(Ichiguchi
2011
), information illegitimacy, skewed data collection/results, and dan-
gerous situations arising from public network sharing (Gao et al.
2011
). Allocation
of response resources is an issue because there is limited coordination between
relief organizations, and there are instances of multiple relief organizations respond-
ing to one single crisis (Gao et al.
2011
). “Network congestion” occurs where too
many people attempt to access the connection at once, causing calling, texting, and
social media access (through Internet connection) to completely shut down as seen
in the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 (Ichiguchi
2011
). Finally, geotags
Search WWH ::
Custom Search