Crowdsourcing for Coordination: The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Disaster Relief Preparedness and Response

Abstract

This paper will look at the impact that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the use of social media platforms have had on disaster relief preparedness and response. In the past 3-5 years, first responders and humanitarian aid delivering organizations have started using ICT and social media platforms and applications to gather data for the purposes of mapping the nature, extent and proportion of disasters as well in order to better streamline aid and humanitarian assistance delivery and response times. Section II of the paper accordingly contains a discussion on the growth of social media and other platforms is issues pertinent to disaster relief, as well as an overview of some of the organizations that work with ICTs during disaster and crises times. In Section III, the paper looks at some case studies of where modern ICT applications have been used to streamline aid efforts in face of sudden on-set disasters for e.g. the earthquake in Haiti and the floods in Pakistan and the recent typhoon in the Philippines. Finally Section IV of the paper discusses whether States have a compulsory obligation to implement ICT based mechanisms in its pursuit of disaster preparedness and response, and whether such an obligation could flow from international instruments pertaining to disaster relief, specifically the Draft Articles on Protection of Persons in Disasters.