Social media-driven disaster risk management

Social media have been described as a form of distributed cognition, a mechanism for understanding a situation using information spread across many minds. The interactions among people in social media are a form of collective intelligence, as they allow people to make sense of a developing event collectively. Social media users can contribute to creating a "sensor" for citizen-generated data that modelling or monitoring systems can assimilate during a crisis.

We think that social media constitute a growing data source to help improve response in the early hours and days of a disaster, when gaining situational awareness is critical and time-sensitive. However, social media platforms may not provide the functionality of summarising the information that is useful for crisis responders.

Our work aims to research how to streamline the processing of text and images extracted from social networks in near real-time during crisis. We use a combination of artificial intelligence and DevOps (Development + Operations) techniques developed in-house at JRC as well as through collaboration with top researchers and practitioners around the world.

The mission of SMDRM Task Force is to identify, understand, and address the challenges for improving adoption of non-traditional social media data for disaster management by taking a collaborative approach between researchers and practitioners in disaster management to co-design solutions.

In particular, practitioners widely recognise the potential of accessing timely information from citizen-generated data on social media, however, integrating it as supplemental information within traditional information systems of emergency management services is a complex challenge. The task force members have been actively engaged in organizing workshops to increase collaborations between researchers and practitioners to identify various challenges and discover solutions, which includes the first inaugural workshop [Lorini et al., 2021] in December 2020.

Castelo Branco, Portugal and Online
Dates: March 27th-28th 2025
The event is coordinated by the Task Force together with the Municipality of Castelo Branco (PT) and VOST Portugal

Follow the event online - the link for the web streaming will be shared here in the coming days.

During our 1st Workshop,  "Social Media for Disaster Risk Management: Researchers Meet Practitioners", held in November 2020, practitioners, although widely recognizing the potential value of social media for accessing timely information, outlined some critical challenges for improving its adoption during crises. These challenges include validating and integrating near real-time information generated on social media with authoritative information and more traditional information systems; and preventing negative impacts from misinformation and disinformation. All participants expressed their desire to continue the discussion towards identifying new directions for research and development of systems that can better serve the information needs of emergency managers.

In the 2nd workshop we engaged more practitioners and learnt how they used user-generated data during crisis. We understood their concerns and their doubts. However the discussions helped  closing more and more the gap between their two worlds with common data frame and procedures. We saw an emerging figure among practitioners, pushing for the use of non-authoritative data, caring for their validation and integration into crisis datasets.

The 3rd Workshop on Social Media for Disaster Risk Management, held in June 2023, brought together a diverse group of stakeholders. Key topics included the integration of artificial intelligence for data filtering and analysis, challenges related to data veracity, and ethical considerations surrounding privacy and misinformation. The workshop underscored the necessity for standardized protocols and training to fully harness social media's potential, advocating for its establishment as a cornerstone in global disaster risk management strategies.

Building on the insights from our previous workshops, the 4th Workshop on Social Media for Disaster Risk Management will focus on bridging the remaining gaps between research and practice, with a strong emphasis on operationalizing social media data for disaster response. While practitioners are increasingly aware of OSINT data and AI applications, challenges persist in validating, integrating, and effectively using these data sources within traditional crisis management workflows. This year's workshop will explore how Generative AI can enhance situational awareness, impact assessment, and decision-making, while also addressing the risks of misinformation in high-stakes environments.

The event will bring together researchers, emergency managers, and policymakers to co-design practical solutions that improve the reliability and usability of social media data for crisis response. Discussions will center around real-world case studies, emerging AI tools, and methodologies to ensure that citizen-generated information can be a trusted and actionable resource for disaster risk management.

Follow the event online.

Valerio Lorini (valerio.lorini@europarl.europa.eu)

• Valerio Lorini, European Parliament, Luxembourg (Co-chair)
• Hemant Purohit, George Mason University, USA (Co-chair)
• Steve Peterson (Montgomery County Community Emergency Response Teams, USA (Co-chair)
• Cody Buntain, University of Maryland College Park, USA
• Carlos Castillo, University of Pompeu Fabra, Spain
• Jorge Gomes, Virtual Operations Support Team, Portugal
• Amanda Hughes, Brigham Young University, USA
• Alexandre Penha, National Civil Protection Authority, Portugal
• Nelles Scholiers, European Commission, DG ECHO, Belgium
• Jose Luis Fernandez-Marquez, University of Geneva, Switzerland

SMDRM Task Force is a consortium of researchers from universities and practitioners from disaster management organizations around the globe, facilitated by researchers from the Copernicus Emergency Services at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.