Distributed Disaster Response

The problem:


Natural disasters are a part of life. As much as they catch us by surprise, weather events (monsoons, floods, droughts) are regular and predictable, as are the risks of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. One distressing truth about human response is that the larger and further away the calamity, the less people care. "Humans are not designed to care about events that are great in magnitude, take place far away, or involve many people they don't know" (see the previous blog entry for more details). 

The root cause:


Individuals' response to disasters depends on the vividness of the suffering, the closeness of the tragedy, and the ability of individual action to affect a solution. Information from large, distant catastrophes trickles in slowly, and the magnitude of suffering demands much more than any one individual can offer. As a consequence, the typical person is turned off.


A possible remedy:

So how can we make people empathize with victims of far-away disasters? We need to find a way to connect with their emotions - to make the suffering vivid, close, and amenable to individual action. We have to provide detailed, timely, vivid, resonant, actionable facts to organizations that manage relief operations - collect donations and channel aid to victims. We must create a process to quickly move bite-size information from the disaster area to the public. 

Step 1. Identifying disaster-prone areas 


Floods take place near river beds and water bodies, and affect people living in low lying areas. Hurricanes and monsoons arrive from oceans in patterns that repeat themselves with small variations. Earthquakes are associated with fault lines and seismic activity, and their effect are magnified by poor construction practices. The resources available to the population factor in the magnitude of the disaster's impact. A list of vulnerable areas can be created by looking at the historical records, or by consulting experts. 


Step 2. Collecting background information


Names and images of individuals, houses and surrounding landscapes create a baseline that can illustrate the impact of a disaster. Talking to locals about their life stories and associating coordinates  with  names and places will allow to return to the exact point, should it be necessary. The idea is to enable 'before and after' comparisons and make the information vivid.



Step 3. Enabling communication flow


With the goal of allowing images to stream from a disaster area onto the international stage, we have to consider equipment and organization. Cheap digital cameras are widely available, many cell phones already containing cameras, so it should be fairly straightforward to find properly equipped volunteers. Water and sand proof cameras are preferable, especially if they can record sound. To prevent losses, the equipment should be owned by the individual volunteer, not given away. 


Up-linking in a disaster area is tricky. Satellite phones and radios are expensive. The alternative is to swap memory cards with the volunteers on the ground, or use the phone network if it functions.

Step 4. Writing up a storm


Some information must be ready in advance to keep up with a disaster. This can be accomplished by a continuous depiction of daily life in a potential disaster zone - what it is like to live in a flood plane, or on a mountainside where landslides follow each heavy rain.


Connecting volunteer writers with area inhabitants can bring their stories to life during normal times and facilitate information flow in time of need.

Step 5. Dissemination


People's stories can be made available to NGO's such as Oxfam, which specialize is disaster relief and appeals for aid. A second option is to contribute content to TV networks, print media, newswires and news sites. The point is that our role is to improve information flow, not provide disaster relief. 


Wrapping up


So here is the 5-step process to change disaster response for the better. Identify the area that will need relief. Connect writers with local volunteers that can provide information from the field. Enable communication flow. Write up the stories for distribution, and provide them to disaster relief NGO's and the media. Now all that we need is the organization...