Building resilient community using social technologies: a precursory measure for effective disaster management

Abstract

Natural disasters like cyclones are a common phenomenon in India, especially in coastal regions. During disaster, victims of a village/ locality normally take shelters in groups in some nearby safe areas (for example, Multi Purpose Cyclone Shelters). Despite of having access to physical infrastructure with basic facilities, disaster victims at cyclone shelters often find it difficult to communicate their exact situational information (like, resource needs and damage information) directly to the local/central authorities. Due to lack of coordination among relief workers and the remote central office, conflicting demands are often generated, causing mismanagement and delay in relief operation. This paper proposes innovative usage of social technology to build resilient community, a mandatory prerequisite to enhance disaster preparedness and coping up mechanisms among collectives inhabited in vulnerable areas. This paper presents an architecture of a Knowledge Informatics Hubs using social technologies at local multipurpose cyclone shelters (MPCS) in coastal areas that will empower the local community members to interact and collaborate with each other, establish communication with various supporting agencies during disaster, establish links with experts and participate in local governance. The aim of creating such a hub would be to create digitally empowered resilient communities who are not only prepared to prevent or minimize the risk of damage to life, property, and the environment due to disaster, but also have the ability to quickly reinstate their normal life and livelihood after a crisis, reopen businesses, and restore other essential services needed for the full economic recovery.