Data Collection And Analysis At Local Scale: The Experience Within The Poli-Risposta Project

Information and communication technology (ICT) can play a significant role in Disaster Risk Management (DRM), especially on supporting data collection, storage, and analysis that ultimately is crucial for decision-making, communication, and collaboration. Determining the areas to intervene in case of emergency, and highlighting risk areas, vulnerabilities, and damages in all phases of a disaster event is just one of the many applications of ICT in this field. This chapter discusses the ways in which ICT can positively impact the different phases of risk management. Initially it presents a compilation of best practices in ICT for emergency, disaster, and risk management of different sectors including government agencies, international organizations, academia, non-governmental entities, and the private sector. Then it describes an example of an ICT system in the Poli-stRumenti per la protezione civile a Supporto delle POpolazioni nel poST Alluvione (RISPOSTA) project. Within the Poli-RISPOSTA project, several applications were developed for data management (insertion, update, visualization, etc.) including two components: a mobile application for data gathering and a web portal for data visualization and management. Both components were created to support the different actors in the procedure to perform their tasks before, during, and after a flood event. At the end, some shortcomings and drawbacks on the use of ICT for data collection, storage, and analysis are discussed.