Abstract: Social media are increasingly used by emergency responders as part of the communication infrastructure during crisis. As such, it is important to understand how these new technologies offer opportunities and barriers to information access for population affected during crisis events. In particular, this project explores the extent to which Twitter is used to provide emergency-related information to vulnerable populations both during routine and crisis contexts. We look longitudinally, across four years, at the online information and communication behaviors of official emergency responders in the United States. Our results demonstrate a notable lack of cross-language crisis communication on social media. We discuss the practical implications of these results, and offer directions for future work and improvement of practices.

Abstract: In this paper, we describe AsonMaps, a platform for collection, aggregation, visualization and analysis of near real-time, geolocated quantifiable information from a variety of heterogeneous social media outlets in order to provide emergency responders and other coordinating federal agencies not only with the means of listening to the affected population, but also to be able to incorporate this data into geophysical and probabilistic disaster forecast models that guide their response actions. Hurricane Sandy disaster is examined as a use-case scenario discussing the different types of quantifiable information that can be extracted from Instagram and Twitter.

Abstract: This paper describes an information system designed to be deployed in emergencies caused by sudden onset natural disasters. The aim is to streamline the communication flow and collaboration between media, aid workers and government agencies with the affected population, to help the latter get verified, accurate and actionable information that will enable them to make decisions and recover from the disaster. The Emergency Information Service (EIS) system also provides means for affected population and field workers to channel vital data back up into aid response. This tool is part of a free information service run by Thomson Reuters Foundation to help survivors of natural disasters. It will serve the affected populations, local media and relief responders by providing fast, practical and verified information in local languages through the best means available.

Abstract: The coastal region of Lisbon, Portugal, is potentially subject to tsunami hazard. Mapping and assessing tsunami risk requires giving adequate consideration to the population exposure. In the present work we model and map the spatio-temporal distribution of population in the daily cycle and analyze it with a tsunami hazard map to better assess tsunami risk in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. New high-resolution daytime and nighttime population distribution surfaces are developed using 'intelligent dasymetric mapping' to combine best-available census data and statistics with land use and land cover data. Mobility statistics are considered for mapping daytime distribution. Finally, the population distribution maps are combined with the Tsunami Inundation Susceptibility map to assess potential human exposure to tsunami in daytime and nighttime periods. Results show that a significant amount of population is potentially at risk, and its numbers increase from nighttime to daytime, especially in the zones of high susceptibility.

Abstract: We are just beginning a two year research project on the management of nuclear risk issues, paying particular attention to environmental, financial and safety issues. One aspect that concerns us is to avoid the assumption that any future accident will be similar to a past accident. In the cases of Chernobyl and Fukushima, it was possible both to evacuate the local population to impose a substantial exclusion zone, and we recognize that for many potential accidents this would be the case. But for some nuclear plant, it may not be so because of the large number of local inhabitants or because of some key industrial or societal infrastructure. We would like to take the opportunity of the ISCRAM conference to discuss this issue with a wide audience.

Abstract: Outbreak of a destructive pandemic influenza threatens to disrupt societies worldwide. International agencies and national governments have prepared plans and recommendations, but it is often decision-makers with the local authorities that are responsible for implementing the response. A central issue for these decision makers is what interventions are available and effective for the specific local community. The paper presents a simulator architecture and its relation to a workflow for decision support in influenza preparedness and response. The simulator can simulate pandemic scenarios, using localized community models, in the presence of various interventions to support an evaluation of potential response strategies. The architecture includes a customized modeling tool, separated from the simulation engine, which facilitates swift scenario modification and recalculation. This flexibility is essential both to explore alternative solutions in planning, and to adapt to changing requirements, information, and resources in outbreak response. An example simulation, based on actual population data from a reference city, illustrates the approach.

Abstract: Emergency management organisations across the world routinely use social media to reach out populations for preparedness and response to extreme weather events. In this paper we present a preliminary analysis of social media strategies towards vulnerable populations in the State of Victoria (Australia). Using the notion of vulnerability in an emergency management context (e.g. older persons, socially/geographically isolated persons, people with disabilities, refugee/recent migrant communities) we explore whether and how organisations address vulnerable groups with targeted messages. Our initial findings suggest that organisations do not tend to interact directly with these groups. Rather, reliance on 'information brokers' (intermediary organisations and individuals with an expected duty of care) seems to be a preferred strategy.

Abstract: Communication between first responders is vital to the success of large scale disaster management. But communication technologies used by first responders today do not scale well due to heterogeneity, point-topoint connections, and centralized communication structures. As the popularity of devices equipped with Wi-Fi grows, the number of access points (APs) in city centers increases as well. This communication infrastructure exists and should be used in city wide disasters as it is readily available in areas with high population density. In this paper, we investigate Wi-Fi access points in 5 major cities deployed in stores, bars, and restaurants. We want to answer the question if these APs can be used as a mesh networking backbone in disaster response. The main contributions of this paper are (i) the surveyed and analyzed public Wi-Fi layout of five major cities and (ii) the connectivity analysis of the city wide network topology.

Abstract: Better and finer global analyses of human exposure and risk of natural disasters require improved geoinformation on population distribution and densities, in particular concerning temporal and spatial resolution and capacity for change assessment. This paper presents the development of new multi-temporal global population grids and illustrates their value in the context of risk analysis by estimating the worldwide distribution of population in relation to recent volcanism. Results indicate that almost 6% of the world?s 2015 population lived within 100 km of a volcano with at least one significant eruption, and more than 12% within 100 km of a Holocene volcano, with human concentrations in this zone increasing since 1990 above the global population change rate. The novel 250-m resolution population grids constitute the new state-of-the-art in terms of global geospatial population data, with the potential to advance modeling and analyses at all stages of the emergency management cycle.

Abstract: The proposed study is expected to focus on the less investigated areas by the previous seismic risk analyses in Turkey. Most of the existing loss assessment methodologies focus on structural damage, infrastructural damage, economic impact, and casualties. However, affected population estimates and development of plans for the immediate needs and recovery requirements of the surviving population are also of equal importance. The proposed framework in this aspect will be utilizing previous social vulnerability and seismic loss assessment studies to develop an analysis methodology for affected population and social response analyses. The methodology is expected to help response planners and decision makers in determining the needs for the surviving population in the recovery process. © 2012 ISCRAM.