Twitter Floods when it Rains

Name of the provider (company name or main contact name), or FIRE IN ID ? Saravanou, Antonia; Valkanas, George; Gunopulos, Dimitrios; Andrienko, Gennady

CCC addressed

Scope, rationale, context: general description. Precise here if this technology is currently use (eg. company name or contact info) Twitter is one of the most prominent social media platforms nowadays. A primary reason that has brought the medium at the spotlight of academic attention is its real-time nature, with people constantly uploading information regarding their surroundings. This trait, coupled with the service's data access policy for researchers and developers, has allowed the community to explore Twitter's potential as a news reporting tool. Finding out promptly about newsworthy events can prove extremely useful in crisis management situations. In this paper, we explore the use of Twitter as a mechanism used in disaster relief, and consequently in public safety. In particular, we perform a case study on the floods that occurred in the United Kingdom during January 2014, and how these were reflected on Twitter, according to tweets (i.e., posts) submitted by the users. We present a systematic algorithmic analysis of tweets collected with respect to our use case scenario, supplemented by visual analytic tools. Our objective is to identify meaningful and effective ways to take advantage of the wealth of Twitter data in crisis management, and we report on the findings of our analysis.

If applicable, choose the relevant working group (Ctrl touch to select more than one) Search & Rescue Emergency Response Structure Fires Landscape Fires Crisis Mitigation Natural Hazard Mitigation CBRNE

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Short description of the solution. Technical details if relevant. Keywords.

Twitter is one of the most prominent social media platforms nowadays. A primary reason that has brought the medium at the spotlight of academic attention is its real-time nature, with people constantly uploading information regarding their surroundings. This trait, coupled with the service's data access policy for researchers and developers, has allowed the community to explore Twitter's potential as a news reporting tool. Finding out promptly about newsworthy events can prove extremely useful in crisis management situations. In this paper, we explore the use of Twitter as a mechanism used in disaster relief, and consequently in public safety. In particular, we perform a case study on the floods that occurred in the United Kingdom during January 2014, and how these were reflected on Twitter, according to tweets (i.e., posts) submitted by the users. We present a systematic algorithmic analysis of tweets collected with respect to our use case scenario, supplemented by visual analytic tools. Our objective is to identify meaningful and effective ways to take advantage of the wealth of Twitter data in crisis management, and we report on the findings of our analysis.

TRL of the proposed solution - Innovation stage (if applicable) Not applicable

Web addresses/URL of flyers and information 10.1145/2740908.2741730

Expected/scheduled future developments

published in 2015

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