UoA/UNICEF ESARO Humanitarian Emergencies in a Digital World

The aim of this University of Adelaide/UNICEF ESARO supported project is to explore the role that information, communication and big data play in improving situational awareness during humanitarian emergencies. In particular this research aims to:

• Examine how new technologies, particularly crisis mapping, are driving opportunities for enhanced data capture during emergencies;
• Examine the nature and scope of different crisis mapping platforms and processes;
• Explore the motivations, rationale and experiences of volunteers who participate in these processes; and
• Interrogate the interaction between crisis mapping platforms and the organisations involved in emergency response.

This interdisciplinary research project has a number of phases to this project including: (i) a desk based literature review, (ii) an online survey targeted at volunteers/participants in crisis mapping platforms, designed to examine the extent and nature of individual’s interment in these platforms, their experiences and motivations for participating and some perceptions of the impact, (iii) follow up interviews with survey participants (who have specifically indicated their desire to participate further at the end of the survey), and (iv) interviews with representatives from emergency response organisations in order to investigate the interaction between these response organisations and crisis mapping platforms.

To undertake our survey on the experience and motivations of those participating in crisis mapping activities click on the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/S32HP8X.

For more information about the Humanitarian Emergencies in a Digital World Project refer to our participant information sheet.