Abstract

Crowdsourcing is a communication platform that can be used during and after a disastrous event. Previous research in crisis crowdsourcing demonstrates its wide adoption for aiding response efforts by non-government organizations and public citizens. There is a gap in understanding the government use of crowdsourcing for emergency management, and in the use of crowdsourcing for mitigation and preparedness. This research aims to characterize crowdsourcing in all phases of the disaster management cycle by government agencies in Canada and the USA. Semi-structured interviews conducted with 22 government officials from both countries reveal that crisis crowdsourced information is used in all phases of the disaster management cycle, though direct crowdsourcing is yet to be applied in the pre-disaster phases. Emergency management officials and scholars have an opportunity to discover new ways to directly use crowdsourcing for mitigation and preparedness.

Highlights

  • The use of the Internet in emergency operations has opened up new opportunities for improving communication during a crisis

  • This study demonstrates the improvements that crisis crowdsourcing can add to current government emergency management operations

  • Research has been heavily focused on crisis crowdsourcing efforts by governments in the USA, recent studies from Canada demonstrate the efforts that Canadian government agencies are taking towards crowdsourcing and social media adoption

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

The use of the Internet in emergency operations has opened up new opportunities for improving communication during a crisis. The only application that is not directly used in the immediate aftermath of a disaster is iCoast, which can be accessed by citizens any time, yet it uses imagery of before and after the hurricane disasters In these instances, crowdsourcing is used to gather information about current ground conditions to improve decision making, there is a clear gap in understanding the role crowdsourcing can play in other phases of the disaster management cycle, mitigation and preparedness (Haworth & Bruce, 2015).

Summary
CONCLUSION
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