An Overview of Public Concerns During the Recovery Period after a Major Earthquake: Nepal Twitter Analysis

In responding to disasters, Twitter is extensively used, both for information exchange and mapping the crisis, among citizens, and in relation to national and international humanitarian responders. This paper reports Twitter analysis aimed at identifying the most pressing issues that arose in the short term recovery phase starting about a week after the Nepal earthquake, including the heretofore neglected topic of mismatch between international relief and local cultures. Based on Twitter data collected between April 30th and May 6th 2015. 1,074,864 raw messages apparently related to the Nepal earthquake were retrieved, filtered and analyzed. This exploratory adapts established frameworks fo…

A Risk Scenario for Small Businesses in Hurricane Sandy Type Disasters

Leveraging a Wiki to EnhanceVirtual Collaboration in the Emergency Domain

In a crisis situation, critical success factors include good preparedness, the availability of trustworthy information and reliable people, and the responders' ability to improvise with the available, functioning tools. Wikis can be used as collaborative group support systems to support these activities, especially for communities of practice that must operate as high reliability organizations. The advantages of using a wiki are especially beneficial in volatile environments, such as those in the emergency domain, where critical real-time decision making is required. An international wiki emergenciWiki.org - has been created and is being used by both practitioners and academics. The conclus…

Insights from a Simulation Model of Disaster Response: Generalization and Action Points

In a prior paper we presented a system dynamics model that simulates responder behavior in a Norwegian landslide. The model shows how a set of vicious feedback loops caused by following standard organizational procedures that do not fit the disaster situation initially increases errors in response. Eventually learning and sensemaking in an improvisation/experimentation process leads to new emergent dynamics whereby the loops act virtuously. In this paper we aim to generalize this initial study by explaining in more detail how the model can describe large scale disaster responses of different types and how it relates to the wider disaster response literature. We discuss what types of levers,…

Knowledge Management for Learning: ICT System Affordances and the Impact of Order of Use