A Review on Citizen Science (Citsci) Applications for Disaster Management

Abstract

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The traditional way of doing science has been changing with the recent movements on open science, open data and the world-wide spread of volunteer activities. With the help of technological advancements, in particular mobile technologies, do-it-yourself kits and free online education sources, ordinary citizens may contribute to scientific processes based on their interest and abilities. Citizen Science (CitSci) is an active research agenda which draws the interest of scientists from different disciplines. It investigates the various contributions that citizens could do to improve scientific process. These contributions are utilized in diverse areas ranging from biology to environmental monitoring to classification of galaxies, all of which have a spatiotemporal dimension. The emerging developments in spatial information science allow the public to understand their environment better and efficiently. In this way society would have the means to deal with complex modern problems including but not limited to water/air pollution monitoring and mapping a region after a natural disaster to aid relief and recovery efforts. In addition, there is a growing public demand for research projects involving CitSci; because such collaborative efforts can be critical to achieve sustainability goals. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview on the state-of-the art methods and applications where CitSci is a crucial component in different phases of disaster management, from environmental protection to risk analysis and aid provision. Use of CitSci methods in disaster situations can be vital for different reasons, such as acquisition of local and most current information, organization of help during emergency, development of instant rescue plans, accurate information dissemination, and monitoring of the post-disaster influences to the society and the environment. Open issues on the use of CitSci methods in disaster management, such as data quality, technical and management-related barriers, open-standards and interoperability, and volunteer engagement, will also be discussed.</p>

Use of Mamdani Fuzzy Algorithm for Multi-Hazard Susceptibility Assessment in a Developing Urban Settlement (Mamak, Ankara, Turkey)

“…In the model estimation stage, the relationship between the variables was analyzed using the landslide positive samples (i.e., inventory data) and a number of randomly chosen non-landslide samples. Equations (1) and (2) were used for computing the logistic regression method.…”

“…Improved disaster management is an important focus locally and globally to reduce the losses caused by natural disasters [1]. The harmful effects of natural hazards on human lives and economies increase with the inadequate land-use planning in developing countries.…”

An Open Data and Citizen Science Approach to Building Resilience to Natural Hazards in a Data-Scarce Remote Mountainous Part of Nepal

“…VGI enables individuals to capture local observations and make informed assessments of their communities through an increased awareness of local hazards, risks, and vulnerability [25]. The use of citizen science in mapping data in disaster situations is also vital for the acquisition of local and the most current information, the development of instant rescue plans, and monitoring of post-disaster influences on society and the environment [26,27]. Moreover, the shared knowledge and improved understanding of the broader community through community-based participatory mapping help to enhance disaster resilience building [15,28].…”

Citizens’ Spatial Footprint on Twitter—Anomaly, Trend and Bias Investigation in Istanbul

“…Although the project is designed and structured to collect and process data, the count in terms of volunteers' response responses to individual earthquakes (the participation rate) to each earthquake is pretty low [21]. Although the project has been replicated for different countries such as New Zealand, Italy and Turkey [20,22] there is still not any organized approach by the relevant authorities [23].SM platforms, although not seen as the proper way to organize citizen-based projects, still have a high and continuous data serving capacity around the world involving 3 billion of users [24]. In fact, SM with its wide, continuous, active data collection and serving capacity can be used as a pioneering platform for carrying out citizen-based projects especially for monitoring out of the ordinary events such as multi-emergency circumstances in big cities.…”

“…Although the project is designed and structured to collect and process data, the count in terms of volunteers' response responses to individual earthquakes (the participation rate) to each earthquake is pretty low [21]. Although the project has been replicated for different countries such as New Zealand, Italy and Turkey [20,22] there is still not any organized approach by the relevant authorities [23].…”