Crowdsourcing for disaster relief: A multi-platform model

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a model to deal with and manage disasters, taking into consideration the limitations of technology which hamper effective crisis management while handling the needs of victims, volunteers and government agencies. Our model aims at providing both an online and offline platform for data aggregation, dissemination and analysis. We propose a three level model which attempts to reduce the impact of the disaster on the victims by providing a platform that helps coordination between all parties involved, and ensures availability of resources and information. We discuss the existing solutions like Ushahidi and try to incorporate successful features into our model. Further, we use various techniques ranging from Natural Language Processing (NLP) to crowd sourcing, and ensure a robust, scalable solution which can be used by all the parties involved. © 2016 IEEE.