Opportunities and Considerations for Smart Phone Applications and Mobile Social Media in Post Extreme Event Reconnaissance Data Collection

摘要

Information collected by experts immediately following natural or man-made disasters is critical in understanding the causes of infrastructure and system failures. In many cases, such information not only helps identify specific causes of a failure but also provides critical insight into how future designs can be more resilient to similar events. However, there are instances where experts cannot get on location for a number of hours or days following an event and important perishable information may be lost or damaged during that initial period following a failure. Leveraging the capabilities of information technology to facilitate initial data collection represents an opportunity for future forensic engineering studies. This paper explores opportunities to engage the public in capturing such information while recognizing the limitations of technology as well as the manner in which it is deployed.