Blockchain Technology for Emergency Response

Abstract

As unforeseen situations, emergencies threaten the environment, property, and people's lives. Large emergencies are characterized by the demand for coordination of a variety of actors, such as civil defense or disaster relief. Communication and information exchange are crucial for coordination. Therefore, a solid, stable communication infrastructure is among the crucial factors for emergency response. New technologies that seem to ensure trustworthy communication must be evaluated constantly. Blockchain technology is widely applied in a broad variety of contexts and is commonly known for its decentralized and distributed governance. This is the motivation for the design and evaluation of a framework for the adoption of blockchain technology in the case of emergency response following a design science approach. Evaluation of the artifact using a specific evaluation framework clearly indicates the suitability of the case for application of blockchain technology.

Virality and the Virus: Drugs and Cures on Twitter During the COVID-19 Crisis in India

“…Consistent with previous work in crisis informatics, such work has paid specific attention to using and classifying real-time data of disasters such as images and audio-logs [36,37], effective use of large scale ICTs for supporting decision making [32,33,38], and employing user geotagging on twitter for enhancing Common Operational Picture Tools [39]. We find studies of Negre [40] and Siemon et al [41] in line with our findings which highlight the need for assurance of trust in digital and social networks. These studies focus on the issue of weakening credibility of experts on social networks and suggest newer models for enhancing trust.…”

“…The SOS calls, while amplified by influencers, were made by family members seeking any means to save their loved ones, running from pillar to post during a remarkable breakdown of the health system. While we can turn to what appears another step towards the weakening credibility of experts in digital and social networks [40,41], what we are seeing here is a record of one of the greatest tragedies of our times, one in which verifiable information was one of the earliest casualties.…”

Applications of the Blockchain Technology in Emergency Crisis Management and Rescue Processes

“…When this system is used for a large amount of data, health professionals will be well aware that how accurate this new trend can be. In addition, the widely scattered health records can be combined to provide an opportunity to track personal medical history using blockchain (4,17,18). Moreover, various components, such as the time and place of distribution and supply of medications can be more closely monitored.…”

“…Regarding healthcare, it leads to patient referral based on available capacities, a decrease in treatment costs, an increase in the efficiency of healthcare, and appropriate notifications. Considering support, the required equipment can be dispatched to the affected areas based on real needs and sufficient information (2,(4)(5)(6).…”

ReliefChain: A blockchain leveraged post disaster relief allocation system over smartphone-based DTN

“…On the other hand, to address the issues of allocation transparency, resource diversion, etc., it becomes imperative to have a document for providing an unchallengeable and globally accessible record of relief requirement vis-àvis allocation for efficient relief management. Several emergency response organizations and researchers have proposed [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] the adoption of blockchain technology [15,16] to create such a shared and unchallengeable document of records. However, the usage of blockchain is restricted by the availability of end-to-end internet connection which, as mentioned earlier, may not be available in a post-disaster scenario.…”