A mobile application to engage citizens and volunteers. Crowdsourcing within natural hazard

Abstract

Responsibility in civil protection from central to local authorities is a changing pattern in natural hazard management. Prevention and preparedness are long-term goals, based on competence of trained volunteers and on awareness of the local citizens. MAppERS Project(1) (Mobile Application for Emergency Response and Support) involves people as crowd-sources rendering through mobile application design integrated to a dashboard. Testing and training courses for public citizens and volunteers of civil protection in two pilot study cases obtain feedback fundamental to raise participation in the disaster network response, towards modules, usability and quality of the product. A synchronized platform reveals advantages of cloud data architecture with a web dashboard. A first module of the application focuses on flood processes gathering real-time data from local population and contributes to personal awareness, while the second module tests preemergency actions on field with rescue crews, collecting details and priority of hazards.