Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Internet links that can be privately accessed through login/password combinations
and/or shared publically. Not only is this type of social media an excellent oppor-
tunity for planning and operational response, it also allows for a free and robust
redundancy for many emergency managers and emergency operations centers
(EOC). Likewise, there are similar online systems that allow for free online stor-
age of files and online materials with almost no limit to size or type of file. Sources
of these services are sometimes fee-based, but there are several robust free services
such as Drop.io, Evernote and MyOtherDrive that could be utilized by emergency
management in this fashion.
Another powerful type of social media tool available for emergency manage-
ment is referred to as social geolocation systems. These tools include FourSquare,
GoWalla, Google Latitude, and most recently, the implementation of Facebook
Places. Although all built on slightly different formats, these social media systems
are all based on the concept of utilizing mobile telephone devices to determine the
geographic location of individuals. This geographic location, which is based on
WiFi and GPS signaling, allows for the individual user to be virtually engaged in
the actual environment that surrounds him. For instance, if friends and/or favorite
restaurants were geographically close they would appear in these systems and allow
for the establishment and/or increased level of social interaction.
Emergency management utilization of social geolocation systems is in its infancy
because of the relatively recent establishment of this technology. However, there
are numerous operational applications that could be considered for usage includ-
ing weather spotting, search and rescue, damage assessment, and debris manage-
ment. These emergency management functions are dependent on field operations at
diverse geographic locations that are managed from one central command location.
This makes communications, documentation, and technological implementation a
necessity.
For instance, debris management operations, because of the necessity of con-
tracted labor, are extremely vulnerable to abuse and misreporting. Significant lev-
els of process accountability are required to eliminate duplicate trips, weighted
trucks, and other abuses. The utilization of social geolocation systems would allow
impacted jurisdictions to require contracted workers to identify themselves geo-
graphically over certain intervals, which could then be recorded and reviewed by
emergency management staff to ensure proper actions were maintained.
Likewise, weather spotters, damage assessment teams, and search and rescue
teams would be able to be deployed to certain geographic areas and report back
real-time observed information. Although this reported information would typi-
cally be done through radio communications and/or traditional paper documenta-
tion, social geolocation systems allow for instantaneous reporting and capturing
of the data for faster processing of the information being provided by the field
teams. Having this type of information faster and with greater reliability would be
an extremely valuable tool for efficient and effective emergency management and
resource coordination.
