Utilizing Volunteered Geographic Information to Develop a Real-Time Disaster Mapping Tool: A Prototype and Research Framework

The global proliferation of personal mobile devices has provided the capability of electronic data collection to billions of people. Furthermore, recent innovations in technologies and implementation methodologies have allowed groups of people to collect and analyze large quantities of data. Examples of such systems include Wikipedia, a community-sourced digital encyclopedia, and Yelp, a directory and review tool of local businesses. The occurrence of important events or the establishment of new restaurants has motivated individuals to provide timely and accurate contributions to Wikipedia or Yelp, respectively. Considering the benefits of widespread data collection capabilities and the motivations to contribute to public knowledge, this design-science paper proposes and prototypes components of a publically driven, real-time disaster-response mapping system