2 - The Use of Social Networks in Emergency Management

Abstract

Nowadays people are used to going online to use a number of data sources, which provide information useful for their daily routine (status of transportation services, delay on commuters’ routes, traffic, weather etc.), as well as for leisure and social activities. At the same time, the availability of broadband connections allows mobile users to themselves become creators of online content, following the paradigm of Web 2.0. A large part of population is using social networks in their private life for sharing their daily experience through text or multimedia contents over several platforms with friends or even publically. Therefore, social networks represent a unique opportunity for bi-directional information exchange between a population and the authorities, acquiring a key role in emergency management. It is in fact possible to take advantage from a new “social awareness” of people that become in this way directly involved in crisis management by means of tools usually dedicate to recreational purposes. Official portals and institutional pages on social networks can be an efficient way to disseminate emergency alerts or information to large number of people. A quick advice dissemination is one of the most important things for reducing risks in disaster scenarios, and in many cases news is shared online by users before it is published on official portals; in particular the use of mobile devices increases the speed of information diffusion. Moreover, location-based applications can use information provided by official channels to show advice to citizens located in a particular emergency area and to assist them during rescue activities. This chapter describes how the collection of information posted on social media can make the difference in all emergency phases, and analyzes the available means which give citizens and authorities the possibility to accomplish their needs in emergency forecast, facing, management and response.