OR/15/032 Scaling up

Mee K, Duncan M J. 2015. Increasing resilience to natural hazards through crowd-sourcing in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. British Geological Survey Internal Report, OR/15/32.

In addition to the methodological steps identified in myVolcano – A crowd-sourcing app for natural hazards, anticipated requirements for implementing the app and using it at a regional scale or in other settings include:

• Testing the resilience of the mobile network and internet in the face of an eruption
• Maximising the potential of the app: whilst we emphasised the importance of monitoring hazards, interviews with Dr Robertson (SRC) indicated the role the app could have in monitoring impacts upon people
• The iterative development of the code of conduct for users in collaboration with key partners
• Further testing of validation methods and protocols (e.g. for ash sample collection)
• Investigation of additional requirements for use throughout the Eastern Caribbean (with SRC remaining the key monitoring contact and each nation having a separate emergency management department).

Through existing collaborations, we have identified an interest in the app in Africa (via the RiftVolc project, Appendix 4), Colombia (via STREVA, Appendix 4), New Zealand (via GVM, Appendix 4) and Southeast Asia.

Apart from in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Goma Volcano Observatory) there are no institutions mandated to monitor volcanoes in the East African Rift. Nevertheless, our colleagues in national institutions (e.g. Tanzania Geological Survey, University of Addis Ababa) would certainly be expected to respond if there is an eruption or hazardous natural event. We anticipate that crowd-sourcing could be an excellent way of sharing information and data even though a mandate for these institutions is lacking.

Southeast Asia, in particular Indonesia and the Philippines, is home to a number of active volcanoes, which can generate hazards with local, regional and global impacts. In the Philippines, extensive use of social media (94% of internet users use Facebook according to On Device Research, 2014), as well as the existence of initiatives for monitoring hazards (e.g. flooding in the Bicol River Basin) and platforms for integrating different data initiatives and local and international partners (e.g. the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards, NOAH), points to the potential for a similar application (Appendix 10). Current smartphone usage is low, so our supporting web tool may be the appropriate point of engagement.