Go social for your own safety! Review of social networks use on natural disasters – case studies from worldwide

Abstract

Social networking sites (SNS) became an indispensable part of people’s everyday life, but also a powerful tool of communication during urgent situations, such as during natural disasters. This is evidenced by a large number of research papers showing the use of SNS in difficult circumstances. Some of the ways of using are the dissemination of information about missing persons, warning on further possible consequences, safety checks during natural disasters, communication about places where the population can find help or a safe refuge. At the same time, SNS could increase awareness among the population about natural hazards. Unfortunately, most parts of the world have at least once been hit by a major natural disaster. People who manage such events have a big task in front of them, as they need to exploit the potential of SNS, but also to reduce the negative side, such as spreading inaccurate information in difficult moments. The paper presents ways of using SNS, and the positive and negative effects of these, before, during and after natural disasters.

COVID-19 and the circulation information on social networks: analysis in a Brazilian Facebook group about the Coronavirus

“…The experiments proposed in this work are guided by the process called Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD), proposed by Fayyad, Piatetsky- Shapiro and Smith (1996). KDD is a process that guides the generation of information and the recognition of patterns based on the execution of five steps: selection, pre-processing, transformation, data mining and interpretation.…”

“…Considering the relevance regarding propagation and social networks as a means of quick exchange of information when disasters occur, some studies (KEIM;NOJI, 2011;KRYVASHEYEU et al, 2016;KIM;BAE;HASTAK, 2018;DRAGOVIĆ et al, 2019;ZHANG;ZHANG, 2020) Understanding social networks as the new forum for collective intelligence, social convergence and community activism, in Keim and Noji (2011) is discussed the immediate consequences of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, with regard to the information circulating in discussion groups on MySpace and Facebook. The first finding presented in their work is that much of what people around the world were learning about the earthquake came from these sources.…”

A Baseline Assessment of the Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems in the Province of Batangas, Philippines

“…Natural disasters have six categories, namely: geological disasters, meteorological disasters, environmental pollution disasters, fire, marine disasters, and biological disasters [3]. World records show that the frequent occurrences of natural disasters have a negative impact on all aspects of life [4]. Natural disasters have significant devastating consequences worldwide.…”

Earthquake Vulnerability Assessment for Urban Areas Using an ANN and Hybrid SWOT-QSPM Model

“…Calamities such as earthquakes are no longer considered mere natural phenomena but the outcome of multifaceted interactions between human society and hazardous events [7]. At the turn of the last century, numerous scholars reported uneven global distributions of natural disasters and their impacts [8,9]. In this context the concept of vulnerability emerges as an inherent difference in hazard susceptibility which predicts potential loss of life, damage to infrastructure, and adverse economic effects [10].…”