During and after a disaster, text messages, tweets, Smartphone apps, and social networks, along with 24-hour cable news and other media, deliver relevant information to emergency responders, decision makers, and the general public. Participants in the workshop "How Communities Can Use Risk Assessment Results: Making Ends Meet" identified ways to use these technologies to communicate the risk associated with an emergency or disaster event, identify and assess real-time conditions in impacted areas, and inform the efforts of responders. This workshop was one session in the World Bank's conference on "Understanding Risk: Innovation in Disaster Risk Assessment."
Workshop participants emphasized three core messages: (1) the need to integrate bottom-up communications from citizens to keep emergency responders and managers informed of changing conditions; (2) the need to prepare people for disaster and emergency situations, including expected emotional reactions, developing and practicing emergency plans, and improving communications and preparedness; and (3) the importance of virtual and personal social networks in increasing resilience and connecting the technological risk assessments with increased resilience to emergency and disaster events.
Copyright 2011 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.