United Nations (UN) Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) has featured LCLUC PI Dr. Son Nghiem's project publication on the UNDRR PreventionWeb at https://www.preventionweb.net/publications/view/72792. This work demonstrates an innovative use of Facebook crowdsourced FBDM data to reveal how people response to emergency order due to wildfires; moreover, it is noted in the conclusions section that “Regarding future research, together with FBDM or similar crowdsourced data and independent remote sensing observations, the method presented in this paper can be adapted for applications to biological disasters in assessing the efficacy of emergency measures, such as the quarantine or lockdown orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic” (see page 10 in the paper). 

Beyond just the efficacy assessment noted above as a reactive approach,  the FBDM data together with the demonstrated approach can be adapted to proactively track COVID-19 risk (risk = vulnerability x exposure).  Such quantitative COVID tracking can be presented on the Agency COVID Dashboard in interactive GIS as county-level risk map for the entire CONUS, which becomes urgent as the COVID-19 problems have extremely surged with record numbers far beyond the worst cases earlier in many states in US.

Read more: Patterns of population displacement during mega-fires in California detected using Facebook Disaster Maps.

Monday, July 20, 2020