- The document analyzes tweets from two natural hazard events, 2009 Red River floods and 2008 Oklahoma wildfires, to understand how Twitter may contribute to situational awareness.
- Over 13,000 tweets were analyzed from the floods and over 6,000 from the wildfires. Tweets provided geo-location information, situational updates, and references to locations that could help provide a coherent picture of the events.
- Tweets related to the wildfires contained more information about fire lines, wind conditions, and evacuations, while tweets about the floods contained more about flood levels, weather, and volunteer information. Tweets with situational updates and geo-location tags were more likely to be retweeted.
June 2021 Safety Meeting - Hurricane PreparednessBrian Mayfield
The document provides information and recommendations for hurricane preparedness. It discusses how hurricanes can threaten coastal areas and carry destructive winds and tornadoes inland. It recommends having a disaster supplies kit prepared, making plans for pets, and deciding where to evacuate if needed. When a storm approaches, it suggests preparing your car, emergency supplies, boarding windows, clearing loose yard items, and listening for weather updates. For DeepWell employees, it outlines following a tiered response model of verifying safety, keeping contact information updated, and responding to communications from the Safety & Operation Team regarding response tiers like evacuations and facility preparations or shutdowns. It includes a checklist of important items to include in an evacuation plan and emergency kit.
The Critical Decade 2013: Influence of climate change on extreme weather eventsClimateCommission
The document summarizes how climate change is influencing extreme weather events in Australia. It notes that climate change is causing the atmosphere and oceans to warm, trapping more heat. This is exacerbated extreme weather like heatwaves, droughts, and bushfires. Records for heat were broken during Australia's Angry Summer in 2013. Climate change also influences coastal flooding by raising sea levels and affects rainfall patterns and flooding. The conclusion is that the current decade is critical for taking action on climate change to limit its impacts on future generations.
This document discusses various aspects of hurricane forecasting and risk communication. It provides statistics on the 2018 hurricane season, including early season storms and track errors that were lower than previous years. It also discusses challenges in risk perception and how communication can be improved by providing annual flood risk statistics instead of focusing just on the 1% chance of flooding. The document emphasizes that small changes in forecast track or landfall location can significantly impact storm surge flooding risks. It outlines goals for the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project to continue reducing forecast errors and improving hazard guidance and risk communication.
A severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for parts of eastern Minnesota and much of Wisconsin until 2 AM on Thursday. Damaging winds, large hail, and possible tornadoes are likely with these severe storms. The watch zone includes the northeastern half of the Twin Cities metro area. The National Weather Service has designated this as a "particularly dangerous situation" due to the potential for widespread damaging winds, including isolated gusts up to 90 mph, and scattered large hail.
1) The class measured temperatures on the Texas A&M campus and compared them to rural temperatures to identify the campus' urban heat island effect.
2) On most days, campus temperatures were 1-2 degrees warmer than rural areas, with some locations up to 4 degrees warmer.
3) Parking lots and areas with more sun exposure showed the highest temperature differences of up to 6 degrees warmer, due to absorbed radiation from pavement and lack of shade.
The Sago Mine tragedy in 2006 grabbed public attention due to miscommunication between rescue teams and the command center that led families and the media to believe for hours that 12 miners were alive when they had actually already died from an explosion. This breakdown in crisis communication highlighted issues with the mine operator's crisis management and prompted increased government regulation and public awareness around coal mine safety.
This document summarizes a study of 33 wildfires in Oregon from 2006-2010. It found that the average cost to protect a home within 6 miles of a fire was $56,614, though costs ranged significantly and some exceeded $200,000 per home. The estimated costs related to housing protection averaged 17% of total firefighting costs. Building new homes in undeveloped high-risk areas has the greatest potential to increase future firefighting costs.
June 2021 Safety Meeting - Hurricane PreparednessBrian Mayfield
The document provides information and recommendations for hurricane preparedness. It discusses how hurricanes can threaten coastal areas and carry destructive winds and tornadoes inland. It recommends having a disaster supplies kit prepared, making plans for pets, and deciding where to evacuate if needed. When a storm approaches, it suggests preparing your car, emergency supplies, boarding windows, clearing loose yard items, and listening for weather updates. For DeepWell employees, it outlines following a tiered response model of verifying safety, keeping contact information updated, and responding to communications from the Safety & Operation Team regarding response tiers like evacuations and facility preparations or shutdowns. It includes a checklist of important items to include in an evacuation plan and emergency kit.
The Critical Decade 2013: Influence of climate change on extreme weather eventsClimateCommission
The document summarizes how climate change is influencing extreme weather events in Australia. It notes that climate change is causing the atmosphere and oceans to warm, trapping more heat. This is exacerbated extreme weather like heatwaves, droughts, and bushfires. Records for heat were broken during Australia's Angry Summer in 2013. Climate change also influences coastal flooding by raising sea levels and affects rainfall patterns and flooding. The conclusion is that the current decade is critical for taking action on climate change to limit its impacts on future generations.
This document discusses various aspects of hurricane forecasting and risk communication. It provides statistics on the 2018 hurricane season, including early season storms and track errors that were lower than previous years. It also discusses challenges in risk perception and how communication can be improved by providing annual flood risk statistics instead of focusing just on the 1% chance of flooding. The document emphasizes that small changes in forecast track or landfall location can significantly impact storm surge flooding risks. It outlines goals for the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project to continue reducing forecast errors and improving hazard guidance and risk communication.
A severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for parts of eastern Minnesota and much of Wisconsin until 2 AM on Thursday. Damaging winds, large hail, and possible tornadoes are likely with these severe storms. The watch zone includes the northeastern half of the Twin Cities metro area. The National Weather Service has designated this as a "particularly dangerous situation" due to the potential for widespread damaging winds, including isolated gusts up to 90 mph, and scattered large hail.
1) The class measured temperatures on the Texas A&M campus and compared them to rural temperatures to identify the campus' urban heat island effect.
2) On most days, campus temperatures were 1-2 degrees warmer than rural areas, with some locations up to 4 degrees warmer.
3) Parking lots and areas with more sun exposure showed the highest temperature differences of up to 6 degrees warmer, due to absorbed radiation from pavement and lack of shade.
The Sago Mine tragedy in 2006 grabbed public attention due to miscommunication between rescue teams and the command center that led families and the media to believe for hours that 12 miners were alive when they had actually already died from an explosion. This breakdown in crisis communication highlighted issues with the mine operator's crisis management and prompted increased government regulation and public awareness around coal mine safety.
This document summarizes a study of 33 wildfires in Oregon from 2006-2010. It found that the average cost to protect a home within 6 miles of a fire was $56,614, though costs ranged significantly and some exceeded $200,000 per home. The estimated costs related to housing protection averaged 17% of total firefighting costs. Building new homes in undeveloped high-risk areas has the greatest potential to increase future firefighting costs.
A father questions his daughter about her choice to major in Communication Arts (CMAT) at Salisbury University. The daughter explains that Salisbury offers many clubs related to her major, which keep her busy. When the father doubts her future job prospects, the daughter insists that Communication Arts is a worthwhile major. She cites the university website and conversations with professors as proof of the major's value and opportunities.
Twitter Adoption and Use in Mass Convergence and Emergency Eventsguest8c177f
This presentation offers a descriptive account of Twitter (a micro-blogging service) across four high profile, mass convergence events—two emergency and two national security. We statistically examine how Twitter is being used surrounding these events, and compare and contrast how that behavior is different from more general Twitter use. Our findings suggest that Twitter messages sent during these types of events contain more displays of information broadcasting and brokerage, and we observe that general Twitter use seems to have evolved over time to offer more of an information-sharing purpose. We also provide preliminary evidence that Twitter users who join during and in apparent relation to a mass convergence or emergency event are more likely to become long-term adopters of the technology.
The document summarizes information about the International Association for the Study of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM). It discusses ISCRAM's history, goals of promoting research and knowledge exchange to improve disaster management, and types of research conducted. It also provides details about the upcoming ISCRAM 2010 conference in Seattle, including the program and opportunities for participation.
Spatiotemporal Mashups: A Survey of Current Tools to Inform Next Generation C...Sophia B Liu
ISCRAM 2009 Conference for the Human-Computer Interaction track on Interactive Map Technologies session
Abstract: Developments in information and communication technology (ICT) have adjusted the opportunities for spatial and temporal representations of data, possibly permitting the simultaneous visualization of how different regions and populations are affected during large-scale emergencies and crises. We surveyed 13 crisis-related mashups to derive some high-level design directions to guide the design and testing of next generation crisis support tools. The current web mashups offer a new way of looking at how crises are spatiotemporally ordered. However, since all technology is constrained by limitations of design choice, examining the limits and possibilities of what current design choices afford can inform attributes of what next generation crisis support tools would require.
Este documento presenta un resumen de 3 oraciones del trabajo "El valor del fragmento" de Laura Jaitovich. Analiza cómo Freud y Lacan usaron fragmentos clínicos para abordar obstáculos en la clínica y cuestionar la posición del analista. Luego presenta un fragmento clínico de una paciente llamada S. cuya posición fantasmática se articula a un rasgo paterno y oscila entre lo imperturbable y lo especular, dificultando la intervención.
The document provides information on severe weather safety and encourages becoming a storm spotter to help the National Weather Service (NWS) provide accurate warnings. It notes that spotters are needed to report ground truth observations to bridge the gap between radar and actual conditions. Spotters can help reduce injuries and deaths from severe weather by assisting the NWS warning process.
This document is the 2013 Emergency Preparedness Guide for Duval County, Florida. It provides information on preparing for hurricanes and other emergencies throughout the year. Key points covered include registering for emergency notifications, preparing evacuation plans and disaster supply kits, shelter information, and special needs registration for those requiring additional assistance. The guide emphasizes the importance of being prepared well before a storm threatens.
The document provides advice and lessons learned from emergency managers around the U.S. about preparing for, responding to, and recovering from severe weather emergencies such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and thunderstorms. It details their experiences dealing with challenges like communication issues, back-to-back disasters, and the destruction from Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey. The stories are meant to help other emergency managers and communities improve their severe weather preparedness.
Plan for Flood and Hurricane Disasters.docxstudywriters
This plan outlines safety procedures for residents of Charlotte, NC in the event of flooding or hurricanes. Charlotte has varying terrain that makes it vulnerable to flooding from heavy rainfall as well as hurricanes. Residents should evacuate as soon as warnings are issued and know emergency plans, routes, and shelter locations. Key preparations include securing homes, turning off utilities, and immediately evacuating if told to do so.
The document discusses preparing for various natural disasters that can occur in the Pacific Northwest such as earthquakes, severe storms, fires, and flooding. It recommends having backup supplies of food, water and other critical items to prepare for potential disruptions. It also stresses the importance of having communication and transportation plans in place and knowing your risk levels based on where you live. Overall the key message is that taking small preparedness steps now such as making an emergency plan and kit can help reduce risks from disasters.
The User Experience of a Natural DisasterAmy Silvers
This document summarizes Amy Silver's experience with the information challenges faced during and after Tropical Storm Sandy in 2012. Some key points:
- Sandy caused widespread power outages and infrastructure damage across the New York City metropolitan area and New Jersey coast, disrupting access to information.
- Effective crisis information must be tailored based on context, authority, and changing needs over time. Information flows through many channels including government, utilities, social media, and community volunteers.
- Lack of coordinated, trustworthy information can exacerbate suffering. Empathy is also important to help affected communities. Experts in "crisis informatics" study how to design effective information systems for disasters.
This summary provides the key details from the community calendar document:
- The document lists various community events happening from May 11th to May 15th in and around Trinidad, Colorado, including meetings for organizations like Celebrate Recovery, Trinidad Area Arts Council, City Council, caregiver support groups, and the VFW post.
- Recreational events are also listed like the AARP driving class, square dancing, and a wine and cheese social.
- The document provides contact information for each event and notes the locations and times.
- At the bottom, it includes a notice for quilters about an upcoming meeting and brief weather and river forecast information for Trinidad.
This document discusses key characteristics of disasters that impact survivors' mental health reactions. It describes how disasters differ from individual traumatic events in affecting entire communities. Some key disaster characteristics discussed are size, cause (natural vs human-caused), and whether the event was expected or unexpected. Understanding these characteristics can help mental health responders provide more effective assistance to disaster survivors.
The document summarizes a tornado that struck Ruskin Heights, Missouri in May 1957, killing 39 people. It describes the path and intensity of the tornado through eyewitness accounts. It also discusses the inadequate warning systems and lack of storm shelters at the time, and how responses to the disaster helped improve emergency management. The author analyzes how a better warning system may have reduced casualties given most homes lacked basements. The response was well-coordinated despite limited resources, and informed future improvements to radar, sirens, and public education.
Tropical cyclones are rotating storms that form over warm ocean waters and are called hurricanes in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific. They have very strong winds that spiral inward toward the eye, where winds are light and skies are clear. The strongest winds and heaviest rains occur in the eyewall that surrounds the eye. Hurricanes are categorized on a scale of 1 to 5 based on their wind speeds, with category 3 or higher considered major hurricanes that can cause extensive damage. Climate change is expected to increase hurricane intensity by raising ocean temperatures.
Francesco Barbero has extensive experience responding to disasters in Italy since 2000, including floods, earthquakes, and refugee crises. He gave a presentation on understanding disasters and reducing risks. He defined key terms like emergency, disaster and discussed assessing hazards and vulnerabilities. Barbero explained the disaster cycle and emphasized the importance of mitigation, preparation, and building resilience through disaster risk reduction and preparedness strategies like having an emergency plan and kit.
Preparedness and Response Forum 4.22.15RedCrossNCR
1) The document summarizes a preparedness and response forum hosted by the American Red Cross and United Way of the National Capital Area. It included welcome remarks, sponsor presentations, a keynote on emergency preparedness, and panels/discussions on how organizations can prepare for and respond to disasters.
2) The forum featured an interactive disaster scenario exercise where participants discussed preparedness and response challenges posed by a hypothetical category 5 hurricane approaching the DC area.
3) In the scenario aftermath, participants discussed information and resource needs, opportunities for collaboration, and lessons learned from previous storms. The goal was to help organizations in the region improve disaster plans and strengthen partnerships.
A father questions his daughter about her choice to major in Communication Arts (CMAT) at Salisbury University. The daughter explains that Salisbury offers many clubs related to her major, which keep her busy. When the father doubts her future job prospects, the daughter insists that Communication Arts is a worthwhile major. She cites the university website and conversations with professors as proof of the major's value and opportunities.
Twitter Adoption and Use in Mass Convergence and Emergency Eventsguest8c177f
This presentation offers a descriptive account of Twitter (a micro-blogging service) across four high profile, mass convergence events—two emergency and two national security. We statistically examine how Twitter is being used surrounding these events, and compare and contrast how that behavior is different from more general Twitter use. Our findings suggest that Twitter messages sent during these types of events contain more displays of information broadcasting and brokerage, and we observe that general Twitter use seems to have evolved over time to offer more of an information-sharing purpose. We also provide preliminary evidence that Twitter users who join during and in apparent relation to a mass convergence or emergency event are more likely to become long-term adopters of the technology.
The document summarizes information about the International Association for the Study of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM). It discusses ISCRAM's history, goals of promoting research and knowledge exchange to improve disaster management, and types of research conducted. It also provides details about the upcoming ISCRAM 2010 conference in Seattle, including the program and opportunities for participation.
Spatiotemporal Mashups: A Survey of Current Tools to Inform Next Generation C...Sophia B Liu
ISCRAM 2009 Conference for the Human-Computer Interaction track on Interactive Map Technologies session
Abstract: Developments in information and communication technology (ICT) have adjusted the opportunities for spatial and temporal representations of data, possibly permitting the simultaneous visualization of how different regions and populations are affected during large-scale emergencies and crises. We surveyed 13 crisis-related mashups to derive some high-level design directions to guide the design and testing of next generation crisis support tools. The current web mashups offer a new way of looking at how crises are spatiotemporally ordered. However, since all technology is constrained by limitations of design choice, examining the limits and possibilities of what current design choices afford can inform attributes of what next generation crisis support tools would require.
Este documento presenta un resumen de 3 oraciones del trabajo "El valor del fragmento" de Laura Jaitovich. Analiza cómo Freud y Lacan usaron fragmentos clínicos para abordar obstáculos en la clínica y cuestionar la posición del analista. Luego presenta un fragmento clínico de una paciente llamada S. cuya posición fantasmática se articula a un rasgo paterno y oscila entre lo imperturbable y lo especular, dificultando la intervención.
The document provides information on severe weather safety and encourages becoming a storm spotter to help the National Weather Service (NWS) provide accurate warnings. It notes that spotters are needed to report ground truth observations to bridge the gap between radar and actual conditions. Spotters can help reduce injuries and deaths from severe weather by assisting the NWS warning process.
This document is the 2013 Emergency Preparedness Guide for Duval County, Florida. It provides information on preparing for hurricanes and other emergencies throughout the year. Key points covered include registering for emergency notifications, preparing evacuation plans and disaster supply kits, shelter information, and special needs registration for those requiring additional assistance. The guide emphasizes the importance of being prepared well before a storm threatens.
The document provides advice and lessons learned from emergency managers around the U.S. about preparing for, responding to, and recovering from severe weather emergencies such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and thunderstorms. It details their experiences dealing with challenges like communication issues, back-to-back disasters, and the destruction from Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey. The stories are meant to help other emergency managers and communities improve their severe weather preparedness.
Plan for Flood and Hurricane Disasters.docxstudywriters
This plan outlines safety procedures for residents of Charlotte, NC in the event of flooding or hurricanes. Charlotte has varying terrain that makes it vulnerable to flooding from heavy rainfall as well as hurricanes. Residents should evacuate as soon as warnings are issued and know emergency plans, routes, and shelter locations. Key preparations include securing homes, turning off utilities, and immediately evacuating if told to do so.
The document discusses preparing for various natural disasters that can occur in the Pacific Northwest such as earthquakes, severe storms, fires, and flooding. It recommends having backup supplies of food, water and other critical items to prepare for potential disruptions. It also stresses the importance of having communication and transportation plans in place and knowing your risk levels based on where you live. Overall the key message is that taking small preparedness steps now such as making an emergency plan and kit can help reduce risks from disasters.
The User Experience of a Natural DisasterAmy Silvers
This document summarizes Amy Silver's experience with the information challenges faced during and after Tropical Storm Sandy in 2012. Some key points:
- Sandy caused widespread power outages and infrastructure damage across the New York City metropolitan area and New Jersey coast, disrupting access to information.
- Effective crisis information must be tailored based on context, authority, and changing needs over time. Information flows through many channels including government, utilities, social media, and community volunteers.
- Lack of coordinated, trustworthy information can exacerbate suffering. Empathy is also important to help affected communities. Experts in "crisis informatics" study how to design effective information systems for disasters.
This summary provides the key details from the community calendar document:
- The document lists various community events happening from May 11th to May 15th in and around Trinidad, Colorado, including meetings for organizations like Celebrate Recovery, Trinidad Area Arts Council, City Council, caregiver support groups, and the VFW post.
- Recreational events are also listed like the AARP driving class, square dancing, and a wine and cheese social.
- The document provides contact information for each event and notes the locations and times.
- At the bottom, it includes a notice for quilters about an upcoming meeting and brief weather and river forecast information for Trinidad.
This document discusses key characteristics of disasters that impact survivors' mental health reactions. It describes how disasters differ from individual traumatic events in affecting entire communities. Some key disaster characteristics discussed are size, cause (natural vs human-caused), and whether the event was expected or unexpected. Understanding these characteristics can help mental health responders provide more effective assistance to disaster survivors.
The document summarizes a tornado that struck Ruskin Heights, Missouri in May 1957, killing 39 people. It describes the path and intensity of the tornado through eyewitness accounts. It also discusses the inadequate warning systems and lack of storm shelters at the time, and how responses to the disaster helped improve emergency management. The author analyzes how a better warning system may have reduced casualties given most homes lacked basements. The response was well-coordinated despite limited resources, and informed future improvements to radar, sirens, and public education.
Tropical cyclones are rotating storms that form over warm ocean waters and are called hurricanes in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific. They have very strong winds that spiral inward toward the eye, where winds are light and skies are clear. The strongest winds and heaviest rains occur in the eyewall that surrounds the eye. Hurricanes are categorized on a scale of 1 to 5 based on their wind speeds, with category 3 or higher considered major hurricanes that can cause extensive damage. Climate change is expected to increase hurricane intensity by raising ocean temperatures.
Francesco Barbero has extensive experience responding to disasters in Italy since 2000, including floods, earthquakes, and refugee crises. He gave a presentation on understanding disasters and reducing risks. He defined key terms like emergency, disaster and discussed assessing hazards and vulnerabilities. Barbero explained the disaster cycle and emphasized the importance of mitigation, preparation, and building resilience through disaster risk reduction and preparedness strategies like having an emergency plan and kit.
Preparedness and Response Forum 4.22.15RedCrossNCR
1) The document summarizes a preparedness and response forum hosted by the American Red Cross and United Way of the National Capital Area. It included welcome remarks, sponsor presentations, a keynote on emergency preparedness, and panels/discussions on how organizations can prepare for and respond to disasters.
2) The forum featured an interactive disaster scenario exercise where participants discussed preparedness and response challenges posed by a hypothetical category 5 hurricane approaching the DC area.
3) In the scenario aftermath, participants discussed information and resource needs, opportunities for collaboration, and lessons learned from previous storms. The goal was to help organizations in the region improve disaster plans and strengthen partnerships.
Disaster Preparedness presentation for professional care givers. Focus on Seattle area hazards: earthquakes, residental fires and severe storms, and ways to reduce risks related to them.
This document provides information about evacuation plans for hurricanes in Florida, specifically focusing on Lee County. It discusses two previous major hurricanes, Andrew and Irma, that caused significant damage in Florida. It then describes two evacuation plans that have been used in Florida - the contraflow plan and the current shoulder use plan. Finally, it discusses the interagency coordination between organizations like FDOT, law enforcement, and emergency management to implement evacuation plans.
- A severe weather outbreak is forecast for parts of the lower Mississippi Valley and Tennessee Valley through tonight, with numerous tornadoes expected, some of which could be intense. Large hail and damaging winds are also likely.
- As of 1800 EDT on April 28th, there have been 130 injuries and 15 deaths reported across multiple states from the tornadoes and severe weather. State and federal agencies are responding.
- Specific impacts are reported for Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma, including destroyed homes and businesses, power outages, flooding, and shelters in operation. Additional tornadoes and severe weather are possible through the evening.
Introducing the LEED Resilient Design Pilot Creditsjuliekannai
The document introduces new LEED pilot credits focused on resilient design. It provides an overview of the credits and why resilient design is important, noting increased risks from natural hazards, climate change impacts, and government policies promoting resilience. The credits include requirements for assessing resilience risks of a project site and planning for enhanced resilience and passive survivability in emergencies. The intention is to encourage proactive resilience planning early in the design process.
1) Hurricane Sandy formed from thunderstorms that rotated around a low pressure system, strengthening into a tropical storm and then hurricane as wind speeds increased. 2) Once formed, hurricanes draw energy from warm ocean waters to intensify, but weaken over land or cooler waters as their source of energy is removed. 3) Hurricane Sandy caused widespread damage, including over $29 billion in New Jersey and $5.7 billion in lost productivity in New York City, before weakening as it moved inland.
1. Microblogging During Two Natural Hazards Events: What Twitter May Contribute to Situational Awareness Colorado University of Colorado at Boulder Sarah Vieweg Kate Starbird Amanda L. Hughes Leysia Palen
11. But what are they talking about here? User Tweet Streams
12.
13. Threshold Users with >3 tweets that include a keyword On-topic: From MWCFD: Eastwood addition, a lot of damage. Part has power, part doesn't. Won't open it back up Off-topic: My Horoscope for today: Your hard work always pays off -- although it might take longer than you want it to. Local Individuals
14. Final Data Sets RR Local Individual set: 19,162 tweets 49 unique Twitter users OK Local Individual set: 2779 tweets 46 unique Twitter users
20. Implicature Current Red River level in Grand Forks is 45.57 feet More than 7 grass fires on going, house burns near Childress Tx Guard will send helicopters to assist in #OKFires near Velma
21.
22. Differences in Situational Updates OK Fires higher in: Fire Line/Emergency Location Wind Evacuation Info Damage/Injury RR Floods higher in: Flood Level Preparatory Activity Weather Volunteer Info
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29. Tweets with Geo-location and Situational Update information are more likely to be re-tweeted Re-Tweets
30.
31. Warning (hazards-focused) Response to Warning Preparation (pre-warning) Evacuation Sheltering Animal Management Damage & Injury Advice Other Environmental Conditions Hazards Location (pre-warning) ... ... ... personal community personal community preparation possible exploitation info space weather visibility road general relative precise personal location specific location historical hazard
32. Personal: @user It can start anywhere - a simple spark can burn down a whole neighborhood. I watered the yard and roof and hope for the best Community: Red in Fargo jumped a foot overnight now @34 and rising. Urgent call for sandbagging volunteers. Head to the Dome or call 476-4000 Response to Warning
33. Warning (hazards-focused) Response to Warning Preparation (pre-warning) Evacuation Sheltering Animal Management Damage & Injury Advice Other Environmental Conditions Hazards Location (pre-warning) ... ... ... personal community personal community preparation possible exploitation info space weather visibility road general relative precise personal location specific location historical hazard
34. Precise: At least a dozen houses have burned east of Lake Draper. Area includes land between SE 119 to SE 149 & Hiawassee & Anderson Rds Relative: We R on the edge of the city hre, but 20-30 miles from the fires Hazards Location
36. Why Does This Matter? One way to tackle the problem of managing crises is to look at how people communicate about them Primes us for thinking about how to extract information and shape behavior
37. Thank You! Project Epic Empowering the Public with Information in Crisis http://epic.cs.colorado.edu/ Acknowledgements: This work is supported by NSF IIS-0546315 and IIS-0910586
Editor's Notes
Burgeoning area of study Facebook use in VT, then in NIU, Community websites in the S. Cal wildfires Earthquakes – popular online forum In this work, we look at Twitter use during 2 events – a flood and a grassfire
Microblogged information is one source that may contribute to situational awareness ; our goal is to identify and measure features of communication that could support technology development – eventual goal is to automatically extract information communicated during time and safety critical situations, but first we need to understand what these communications are all about We’re concerned with how people faced with a natural hazard communicate and figure out what to do Role Twitter plays in that process
RR – NOAA warning in late Feb, river runs south to north – ice jamb issues Above flood level for several weeks March 28 it crested all time record high in Fargo, and on April 16 in Winnipeg crest of a flood is the highest level that the water reaches before receding
Fires happened April 9-10 – central and southern OK At least 60 injuries, 31 counties a state of emergency, 8 suffered damage, close to 270 buildings destroyed and over 100,000 acres burned
Going to talk about the method METHOD is a big contribution How we go about finding tweets in the midst of the chaos that is the Twitterverse that relate to our subject of study, and then distill from there to get a good representation of what is happening in the Twitterverse? Studies thus far have talked about the growth of Twitter, who uses it, trending topics, etc. But how do we gain an understanding of what people are saying? Mention ‘Big Science’???
Choose search terms quickly – based on examination of the public twitter stream, search of mainstream media Choosing search terms is an aspect of researching CMC in crisis and disaster that involves tradeoffs. Decisions are made on what to search for, and with those decisions comes a limitation on the data that are collected. In the 2 cases presented here, our judgment is that we retrieved a relevant and seemingly good sample
Close to 5 thousand for RR Close to 4 thousand for OK
Took only those user streams that had more than three tweets that included a search term Went through and coded each tweet as on- or off-topic Got a set of on-topic tweets, went through and identified only those who were “local individuals” Important to look at local individuals – both events were contained to specific areas, neither had a large national or international response – there was a lot of communication among residents of each area Rationale – want to look at more active users, some people fall off, only tweet once, didn’t keep any low-activity users
Almost 22,000 tweets All hand-coded Got waist-deep in the data, wanted to understand what people were talking about at a detailed level. We knew they were tweeting about the flood and the fires…but what were they saying? Will now launch into a discussion of what local individuals were tweeting about
Features of geo-location information – a feature is counted for every category of geo-location information mentioned Possible for one tweet to include two or more features – the one here has both ‘city name’ and ‘highway’ The second one has both ‘street name/address’ and ‘city name’
Ground-up – read and analyze every tweet Geo-location – location of people, events, shelters, evacuation sites 5 categories Graph shows geo-location occurrences as a percentage of all on-topic tweets Subsequent analysis is showing that location information is frequent in this type of Twitter communication
2 main reasons for differences in geo-location info: difference between fire and flood, difference between people in ‘warning’ and ‘impact’ stages Wildfire unexpected, floods predicted Geo-location information more useful in wildifire – fires are erratic, know exactly where they’re burning, where evacs ordered, where shelters set up Floods – people know where the river is, severe flooding has happened before, not as much geo-location info being broadcast Length of each event RR had a long period of ‘warning’ – outcomes are uncertain, not sure where to evacuate, what areas will be hardest hit, etc. OK had very little warning – almost all these tweets were during ‘impact’ and ‘recovery’ stages – fires had swept through, destroyed buildings, etc. – people needed to know where to direct resources, what sheltering options were available Indicates for now that geo-location information will vary depending on the type of disaster (among other factors) – gives us a basis for anticipating future
No easily-identifiable geo-location information, but info that gives an idea about the location of both Twitterer and the emergency Something to pay attention to – location isn’t always communicated in a straightforward manner We want to automatically extract critical information OK – 8% contain geo-reference info RR – 6% contain geo-reference info
One additional phenomenon of note - markedness Certain places, landmarks, etc. become taken-for-granted and expected when referred to in more general terms. For example “Pacific Ocean” Because we searched on ‘red river’ and not ‘sheyenne river’ – red river was noted as ‘unmarked’ in some tweets, while the Sheyenne was marked Not making claims this is how it is always, but is something to watch for re: automatic extraction
Phenomena - Implicature Meaning of a statement goes beyond semantic content Examples Tweet about the level of the river, but also a warning, especially for those who are area residents and know what level dikes can hold to Geo-location, location referencing, – but also a warning, maybe a request for help or advice Again – update about help arriving, but also a warning? Situation is dire near Velma Need to watch out for linguistic intricacies that are conveyed in these 140 character messages, there is a lot of meaning bound up in some of them that may contribute to SA
These categories built up based on the qualitative coding These categories represent information that is actionable and may contribute to situational awareness
OK higher in: Evacuation info, Damage/Injury, Fire Line/Emergency Location, Wind RR higher in: Preparatory Activity, Flood level, Weather, Volunteer Info Based on differences in hazard type Though there are differences, overall, situation updates were distributed throughout the data collection periods for each event and concentrated during the height of each emergency Fire line/Hazard location and Flood Level – very similar
OK – all tweets collected during 6 day collection period
OK all on topic tweets
OK Sit update tweets
RR – all tweets collected during 51 day collection period
RR all on topic tweets against all tweets
RR Sit update tweets and all on-topic tweets see what percentage of ALL tweets See what percentage of On-Topic tweets
Additional information that contributes to our understanding of Twitter behavior – Analysis of retweets Higher percentages in the Sit. Update and Geolocation categories, than the overall On-topic, indicating a preference for re-tweeting this sort of information Twitter users have a preference for pass along this type of information
Begun to characterize the types of information communicated during mass emergency More information that we might glean from referring to traditional emergency management organizational frameworks
SPEND TIME Evolved from our analysis of our coding scheme, also fleshes out standard information categories used in emergency response This framework doesn’t represent what emergency managers communicate, it shows what affected people “on the ground” talk about Example – Hazards Location – this may be general, precise or relative – this gets at the heterogeneity of the information conveyed on Twitter by those who are directly affected Like what we refer to with geo-location, which may be very precise, and geo-referencing, which may be relative These blue parts show the intricacies of the tweets, that it’s not straightforward “warning” or “hazard location” – there are specific aspects to these information types, and our goal is to take what we see as humans and help machines accomplish these same organizational tasks For example, in the ‘preparation’ category – it may happen at the personal or community levels, which is a helpful distinction when we think about the different communities that may benefit from this information We articulate more – new ways in which people deal with preparation, etc. Personal vs. community is interesting The way we start to construct this info later on – we may want to know what individuals are doing (individual space) and communicty space, ho w we deal with the info may shape the SA overview
First is personal response during the OK fires Second is community response Both give an indication of what is happening “on the ground” Fargo shutting down sandbagging ops tonight @ 6 pm. Will have enough bags (3 mil) by then
SPEND TIME Evolved from our analysis of our coding scheme, also fleshes out standard information categories used in emergency response This framework doesn’t represent what emergency managers communicate, it shows what affected people “on the ground” talk about Example – Hazards Location – this may be general, precise or relative – this gets at the heterogeneity of the information conveyed on Twitter by those who are directly affected Like what we refer to with geo-location, which may be very precise, and geo-referencing, which may be relative These blue parts show the intricacies of the tweets, that it’s not straightforward “warning” or “hazard location” – there are specific aspects to these information types, and our goal is to take what we see as humans and help machines accomplish these same organizational tasks For example, in the ‘preparation’ category – it may happen at the personal or community levels, which is a helpful distinction when we think about the different communities that may benefit from this information We articulate more – new ways in which people deal with preparation, etc. Personal vs. community is interesting The way we start to construct this info later on – we may want to know what individuals are doing (individual space) and communicty space, ho w we deal with the info may shape the SA overview
Not possible to sift through Twitter to find actionable, critical information Need a deep-seated understanding of what people “on the ground” are doing during these time and safety-critical situations Allows actors in the space to have a better understanding of what’s going on – Twitter one place people are looking Goal of EM is to have SA People “on the ground” have the means to reach large audiences via Twitter Affordances of Twitter allow us to gain information