Volunteered geographic information is a crucial tool in disaster response and recovery, transforming data collection and sharing. It has significantly improved disaster management by providing insights into urgent needs, damage estimation, and resource allocation. The distribution of VGI during relief efforts has greatly benefited from social media platforms, supplemented by hashtags and machine learning techniques. Mobile and web-based technologies and community involvement have improved coordination and decision-making. VGI is crucial for monitoring development, evaluating infrastructure, and assisting risk assessment during the recovery phase. It's important to pay attention to issues like data quality, privacy, inclusivity, complexity, obsolescence, appropriateness, accessibility, and technological infrastructure. Future studies should concentrate on automated systems for data validation, resolving privacy and security issues, and encouraging marginalized people to participate.
TopIntroduction
VGI refers to user-generated digital geographic information, which includes both text and multimedia (See et al., 2016). The production, collection, and dissemination of geographic information are all made possible by the use of the internet and communication technologies. VGI is an essential tool to better comprehend and explore the social, economic, and environmental circumstances of a particular region. There are many sources of VGI, including unstructured social network data platforms with explicit or implicit location information like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as well as structured geographical data platforms like OpenStreetMap (OSM). These systems work together to create a vast and varied VGI pool that can be used for many different geographical analyses and applications. VGI is essential in enhancing official data sources since it offers useful data on the state of the impacted populations, the state of the infrastructure, and the state of the roads (Goodchild, 2007; Soden & Palen, 2014).
Over the past few years, there has been a noticeable rise in global crises resulting from climate extremes, natural and human-induced hazards, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and various other factors. Communities, infrastructure, agriculture, and the country's economy all suffer greatly from natural disasters. Information gathering about the effects and dangers of natural disasters is essential for reducing and managing vulnerability to catastrophes. This information is mounted on the maps and areas that will encounter natural disasters and those that will be impacted by disasters. Consequently, the significance of maps and spatial data has been widely acknowledged in all four stages of disaster management, namely mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery (Potts et al., 2013).
During disasters, Governmental organizations have limited resources to quickly gather information and disseminate it to deal with crises. In this situation, volunteering is advantageous for disaster management since volunteers are more likely to take part in different stages of disaster management. People have started using numerous online channels to communicate their ideas, experiences, photographs, and video evidence in recent years due to the popularity and wide adoption of social media platforms (Kankanamge et al., 2020). This has changed the way that geo-data is produced, necessitating the need for researchers to examine and analyze the effects of these data and data practices.
In a study conducted by Kankanamge et al., (2020), real-time Twitter data from the 2010-2011 South East Queensland Floods was employed. The analysis revealed several important findings: first, the use of Twitter emerged as a promising method for gathering citizen knowledge; second, tweets proved helpful in identifying temporal variations in the severity of the disaster; and finally, the spatial analysis of tweets confirmed the efficacy of geographically tagged messages in identifying areas heavily affected by the disaster. Thus, combined results highlighted VGI's potential and usefulness as a source of information for monitoring and evaluating disasters. Another study by Nath et al., (2018) demonstrated the utilization of geotagged social media content from Twitter to support disaster management processes. This study showcased the development of a streamlined map that establishes a connection between volunteers, who are prepared to assist flood victims, and individuals who have expressed their needs for help through social media.
The distinctive characteristics of VGI have shown their value in enhancing processes associated with disasters (Yates & Paquette, 2011). VGI is a vital tool in disaster response and recovery which enables people to provide crucial geospatial data during and after catastrophic events (Vavassori et al., 2022). In terms of disaster awareness, information identification, and information categorization, VGI has become an essential element that traditional approaches cannot match, finally resulting in successful disaster determination.