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Social networks to help calculate the extent and risk of flooding in real time
Thanks to a project by Carlos Castillo, coordinator of the Web Science and Social Computing research group, promoted by Facebook, which will use data from social networks and hydro-meteorological models to create a real-time global layer of the extent and the risk of flooding for integration in the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS).
“Capturing the “Big Picture” from Social Media to Enhance Flood Awareness at Global Scale” is the title of the project to be conducted by Carlos Castillo, principal investigator and coordinator of the Web Science and Social Computing (WSSC) research group of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC) at UPF, having obtained one of the grants awarded by Facebook for investigation in crisis informatics, to the amount of $50,000 US.
This project will use data from social networks and hydro-meteorological models to create a real-time global layer of the extent and the risk of flooding, for integration in the Global Flood Awareness System(GloFAS).
According to Carlos Castillo, principal investigator: “this project is part of active collaboration during over a year with the Joint Research Center (JRC), the body that advises the European Commission on scientific and technical issues”. “Specifically, it is a development for the Copernicus Emergency Management System, a platform that provides real-time maps on disaster risks and impacts”, adds Castillo.
The project focuses on flooding, the natural disaster that causes the most damage every year in Europe
Within this platform, the Web Science and Social Computing group has worked on the task providing the platform with a layer of information submitted by the public, through social media, to complement meteorological information and data from sensors. The project focuses on flooding, the natural disaster that causes the most damage every year in Europe.
Facebook’s support will mainly be used to capture and process messages posted on social media in dozens of languages
Thus, the main goal of the project funded by Facebook will be to “expand the coverage of the information that we provide to Copernicus from Europe to a global level, through the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS)”, explains Carlos Castillo. Facebook’s support will mainly be used to capture and process messages posted on social media in dozens of languages, determine how these messages can provide information beyond specific needs, and offer a bigger picture concerning a certain disaster in real time.
Reference Project
"Capturing the «Big Picture» from Social Media to Enhance Flood Awareness at Global Scale", investigador principal: Carlos Castillo, Universitat Pompeu Fabra; with Milan Kalas, independent consultant. Facebook Award for investigation in crisis informatics 2018.