Social Media, Crisis Mapping, and the Christchurch Earthquake of 2011

Abstract

The initial M7.1 Darfield earthquake that struck Christchurch and the surrounding Canterbury region on the 4th of September 2010 at 4.35am (local time) was the ‘first high-impact geological event to affect New Zealand in the “internet age”’: a significant feature of this event and its aftermath was the extensive use of social media channels for information sharing (Gledhill, Fry, Ristau, Holden & Reyners 2010: 215). As Hughes, Palen, Sutton, Liu and Vieweg (2008: 1) explain, sociologists ‘have documented the nature of convergence onto the physical sites of disasters … and now, increasingly, parallels of such behaviour can be seen on-line’. The 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes are now part of a large body of case studies in which there was a significant online social convergence of people and information following a crisis or disaster.

The focus of my PhD thesis is, firstly, the value of the data produced by social media based crowd-sourcing techniques in New Zealand, data that is utilised for both organisational and community responses during a crisis event; and secondly and by extension, the organisational and institutional contexts, policies and practices within which this data is sourced and deployed. One of the products of these crowd-sourced problem-solving techniques is crisis mapping: this term refers to the practice of geolocating information onto ‘live’ maps to produce and visualise a synoptic perspective (in real time) of what is usually a complex and often rapidly changing environment. The information is plotted on maps and continuously updated as new information is received and events unfold. International communities, such as The International Network of Crisis Mappers, are also able to contribute to this process by sourcing information from the public via social media (e.g. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook), text messages, web reports and email as well as satellite images, traditional news channels and situation reports, to visually map information about trapped persons, medical resources, damaged buildings, closed roads, and specific needs such as food, water and shelter.

One of the main points of interest for this research is going to be on the value of the data produced by crowd-sourced problem-solving techniques in New Zealand emergency responses. This thesis will identify and analyse how crisis mapping produces information that, firstly, improves situational awareness for traditional emergency response organisations; and secondly, supports the self-organising capabilities of a community. It will also consider the challenges to and potential solutions for integrating a social media-based crowd-sourcing system into the traditional New Zealand emergency response organisational framework.