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Purpose Social vulnerability in the context of disaster management refers to the sociodemographic characteristics of a population and the physical, social, economic, and environmental factors that increase their susceptibility to adverse disaster outcomes and capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist, and recover from disaster events. Because disasters do not impact people equally, researchers, public health practitioners, and emergency managers need training to meet the complex needs of vulnerable populations. Design/methodology/approach To address gaps in current education, the CONVERGE initiative, headquartered at the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, developed the Social Vulnerability and Disasters Training Module. This free online course draws on decades of research to examine the factors that influence social vulnerability to disasters. Examples of studies and evidence-based programs are included to illuminate common methods for studying social vulnerability and ways that research can guide practice. To evaluate the module, all trainees completed a pre- and post-training questionnaire. Findings Between July 2019 and September 2021, 1,089 people completed the module. Wilcoxon signed rank tests demonstrated a significant perceived increase in self-rated knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA). Students, members of historically underrepresented populations, and those new to or less experienced in the field, had the greatest perceived increase. Practical implications This training module can help participants understand the specific needs of socially vulnerable populations to help reduce human suffering from disasters. Originality/value This article describes a novel web-based training and offers evaluation data showing how it can help educate a broad hazards and disaster workforce on an important topic for disaster management.
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Big Data and Emergency Management: Concepts, Methodologies, and Applications
Recent decades have seen a significant increase in the frequency, intensity, and impact of natural disasters and other emergencies, forcing the governments around the world to make emergency response and disaster management national priorities. The growth of extremely large and complex datasets — commonly referred to as big data — and various advances in information and communications technology and computing now support more effective approaches to humanitarian relief, logistical coordination, overall disaster management, and long-term recovery in connection with natural disasters and emergency events. Leveraging big data and technological advances for emergency management has attracted considerable attention in the research community. However, the desired merging of big data and emergency management (BDEM) requires coordinated efforts to align and define interdisciplinary terminologies and methodologies. To date, the key concepts and technologies in this emerging research area have not been coherently discussed in a sufficiently broad and multidisciplinary manner. In this article, an international team presents an overview of the BDEM domain, highlighting a general framework and discussing key challenges from several perspectives. We introduce and summarize typical technologies and applications, organized into the six broad categories. Finally, we outline several directions of future research.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1917112
- PAR ID:
- 10188343
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IEEE Transactions on Big Data
- ISSN:
- 2372-2096
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 1
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/TBDATA.2020.2972871
