Crowdsourcing Fire and Floods

Crowdsourcing: Fire and FloodsHeather LesonJanuary 18, 2011 Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

The Crowd is here
Alertnet names CrisisMapping one of the Top 20 big ideas that don’t cost the Earth.
Crowdsourcingis coming home in 2011.
Canadians watch the news.
Both the CBC and Global News are both asking questions: how they can use these new tools for user-engagement monitoring and reporting.
(Source: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/alertnets-top-20-big-ideas-that-dont-cost-the-earth/#A11 )

Current Example: Crowdsourcing Floods

The Australian Floods: January 2011
In less than 3 weeks:
Over 35 crowdsourced maps for Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales.
Maps were created by Media, Government, NGOs, NFP, and individuals.
Other content: Twitter, RSS feeds (blogs), Traditional Media coverage
(Source: http://spatial21.blogspot.com/)

About the Queensland Map
Created by media : ABC
Tool used: http://queenslandfloods.crowdmap.com/
No server required.
Urban area, citizen reporting
Verified and Unverified reports
Video and pictures added
# of reports: 916 (ongoing)

Citizen Reporting
Volunteer Technical Communities mapped Haiti, Chile, Pakistan, Sudan and the Gulf Oil Spill using a combination of new and existing data.
Citizens are inspired by crowdsourcing activities around the world.
By the end of this year, there will be major initiatives in Canada.
Free online tools are available and will be used.

Framework

Volunteers and Academics
Volunteer Technical Communities and academic groups-crowdsourcingprojects:
Crisismappers,Ushahidi, OpenStreetMap
Random Hacks of Kindness 1.0
Academics – University of Boulder, Colorado (Project EPIC), Carnegie Mellon (Disaster Management Institute)

Mapping Tools
Ushahidi/Crowdmap
OpenStreetMap
Sahana
Google Earth
Esri

Data
UN/World Bank/Global Canadian/Ontario/Toronto (comprehensive list): http://www.opendataday.org/wiki/Data

New Data vs. Existing Data
Satellite imagery
Google Earth
Grassroots Mapping
Others

Crowd Data Collection Tools
Ushahidi/Crowdmap/Swift River
Tweak the Tweet
Google Docs
Google/Bing Search

Voice/SMS capture tools
FrontlineSMS: http://www.frontlinesms.com/
Clickatell: http://www.clickatel.com/
IntelliSMS: http://www.intellisms.co.uk/
Groundcrewhttp://groundcrew.us/
Instedd: http://instedd.org/technologies/geochat/
Tropo: https://www.tropo.com/home.jsp (paid)
PBX-in-a-flash + Teleyapper.http://nerdvittles.com/index.php?p=701http://nerdvittles.dreamhosters.com/pbxinaflash/
(These tools listed were recommended by members of the CrisisCommons and Crisismappers mailing lists.)

Wildfire Simulation Tools
Google Earth and the University of Corsica team:http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2010/12/simulate_forest_fires_with_forefire.html
http://grass.ibiblio.org/grass65/manuals/html65_user/r.ros.htmlhttp://grass.fbk.eu/grass65/manuals/html65_user/r.spread.html
http://www2.bfrl.nist.gov/userpages/wmell/PUBLIC/WILDFIRES/EASFIRE_May05/nist_grassfire_EastFire_5-05.pdf
http://www.fs.fed.us/wwetac/arcfuels/
(Source: CrisisMappers mailing list)

Preparedness

Bushfire Connect
Australian Not-For-Profit project.
Created in June 2010.
Obtained volunteer help at Random Hacks of Kindness 1.0 (Sydney, Australia). (June 2010)
Team: Emergency manager + social media expert + media coordinator + three software developers.
It has not been used for a Bushfire.
Built on Ushahidi.
Server install.

Bushfire Connect
Status: Team is collaborating on tool development, funding and procedures. They are in advanced discussions with Victoria state government regarding apartnership.
Different from other Ushahidi instances: established well before event(s) – both advantage (branding and credibility) as disadvantage (less sense of ‘urgency’)
Recently added mobile application capability
http://www.bushfireconnect.org/blog/
Contact: MauritsVan DerVlugt, Initiator and Business Strategist maurits.vandervlugt@mercuryps.com.au

Response

Russian WildFires
Team: Bloggers, Coordinator Group (moderators), IT, offline activists, and PR.
Created in August 2010
Tracked urban and rural fires
Organized in a short time with low budget.
Used Ushahidi.
Server install.
Tool: http://russian-fires.ru
Contact: Gregory Asmolov, co-founder of Help Map for Russian Fires. gregory.asmolov@gmail.com
Sources: http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2010/08/02/russia-crowdsourcing-assistance-for-victims-of-wildfires/
http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2010/10/19/russia-sustainability-of-crowdsourcing-projects-after-emergency-and-%E2%80%9Cushahidi%E2%80%9D-chain-effect/

Bushfire Connect
Participation in firefighting including creation of private firefighting units
Purchasing professional firefighting equipment
Humanitarian aid
Transport
Money
Living places
Volunteering

Results:
Lessons Learned
Ushahidimakes possible transformation from sporadic coverage to comprehensive monitoring and coordinated assistance.
Collect, Monitor, Coordinate and Moderate.
Received over 1600 reports.
“The main purpose of the platform, is not mapping the wildfires, but primarily building the bridge between those who need help and those who wish to help.”
Next Steps
The team continues to collaborate. They just launched a new platform holoda.info: Focusing on Russian Winter topics (lack of heating, water, and electricity etc.).

San Bruno and Boulder Fires
Both urban centers
San Bruno – Craig Fugate, Adminstrator of FEMA stated that Twitter gave him the most real-time data (September 2010)
Boulder – Telephone services unreliable. A key communication channel for emergency response suffered. Twitter was used as a work-aroundoutbound emergency response channel. (October 2010)

Ontario, Canada
What about Canada’s forest?
Remote forest fire regions
Crowdsourcing/SMS may not be as useful
There has been little to no crowdsourcingcrisismappingyet.

Ontario, Canada
Problem definitions:
How can the lessons learned from volunteer crowdsourcing benefit Canadian emergency responders?
Can crowdsourcing be effective in remote areas?
Is there a map with data mash-up of cellular coverage and north fire risk areas?

Discussion

Contacts
Heather Leson @heatherleson
Heather@textontechs.com
Textontechs.com
Thank you to Maurits Van DerVlugt andGregory Asmolov for providing input and content for this presentation. And, to the Crisismappers community for ongoing dialogue.
Thank you to Patrick Meier and Jen Zemke for giving us a virtual home to meet and engage.

Crowdsourcing Fire and Floods

by Heather Leson

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