Information Technology I · Koyama CaltonPu Masaru Kitsuregawa Eva K Lee (Group Leader) AtsuoSusuki Japan and NZ Earthquakes RAPID and Research Needs Workshop Arlington, VA Feb 9

2/13/2012

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Japan and NZ Earthquakes RAPID and Research Needs Workshop

Arlington, VA Feb 9 and 10, 2012

Information Technology I

US Principal Investigators Japan/NZ Collaborators

J. Stamberger, I. Lane, S. Ergan M. Billinghurst

Yasuaki Sakamoto, Yuko Tanaka Toshihiko Matsuka, Hidehito

Honda, Yasushi Michita

Jeannette Sutton David Johnston

Arjan Durresi. Raj Jain Leonard Barolli, Makoto

Takizawa, Shibata Yoshitaka, Akio

Koyama

Calton Pu Masaru Kitsuregawa

Eva K Lee (Group Leader) Atsuo Susuki



Research Themes

Rapid Damage

AssessmentCommunication

Data Management

Decision-Support:-Resource Allocation

-Rapid Screening

-Population Protection

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Mobile Augmented Reality to Improve Rapid Assessment in Disasters

Team: J. Stamberger*, I. Lane*, S. Ergan* (CMU, USA), M. Billinghurst (University

of Canterbury, NZ)

Objective: Evaluate the use of mobile augmented reality for rapid, large-scale

damage assessments of buildings by facilitating remote collaborative

expert/non-expert interactions

Carnegie-Mellon University, University of Canterbury



Non-experts in earthquake hit region

Remote expertsRapid building

assessment

Collaborative

Augmented

Reality Tools

Expected Findings1

For response planning following an earthquake or similar natural

disaster, rapid assessment of infrastructure damage is critical

Expected Findings:➔ Collaborative augmented reality systems coupled with remote

experts and on-site citizens can assist in rapidly and accurately

assessing infrastructure damage➔ Identification of methods for evaluating remote collaborative

augmented reality (AR) systems for rapid damage assessment➔ Evaluation of collaborative AR systems for remote damage

assessment

1 Onsite data collection in Christchurch originally planned for summer 2011 (July 14-30th, 2011).

Due to delay of award funding, collection will now be performed in Feb 27th – Mar 7th, 2012



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University of Colorado at Colorado Springs



When Online is Off: Public Communications Following the February 2011 Christchurch, NZ Earthquake

Team: Jeannette Sutton*, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, GNS Scienceand Massey University. Co-Investigator, Dr. David Johnston

1. Investigates the strategies used by local government to communicate electronically with disaster affected individuals

2. Individual access to information in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake

3. Effects of information access on individual perceptions of community resiliency.

Key Findings



1. Public officials had no strategies in place to

communicate via social media; no plans to coordinate

with digital volunteers

2. The public who were directly affected searched for

information across multiple sources; established their

own information flow; found local information most

useful.

3. Digital volunteers sought out and curated open data

onto locally relevant maps

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Indiana University and Washington University, St. Louis

Using Lessons from the Disaster in Japan to Develop

Communications for Emergency Situations



Team: Arjan Durresi* (Indiana University Purdue

University Indianapolis), Raj Jain*

(Washington University in St. Louis), Leonard

Barolli (Fukuoka Institute of Technology),

Makoto Takizawa (Seikei University), Shibata

Yoshitaka (Iwate Prefectural University), Akio

Koyama (Yamagata University).

Internet

Cellular

Disaster Area

Objective: Study and propose solutions for emergency

communications in the United States

Key Findings

• Japan has a very sophisticated EEW system but does not use

the latest capabilities of smart phones. US has no cellular

warning system. [WUSTL MS project report]

• When cellular infrastructure is broken, Wi-Fi capabilities of

the phones and private WiFi networks can be used to

communicate warning in a trustworthy manner [IUPUI tech

report]



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Stevens Institute of Technology



Minimizing the spread of false rumors in social media during a

disaster

Team: Yasuaki Sakamoto and Yuko Tanaka (Stevens Institute of Technology;

Toshihiko Matsuka & Hidehito Honda (Chiba University), Yasushi Michita

(University of Ryukyus)

Objectives:

– Understanding the psychology behind the spread of false

rumor in Twitter regarding the Japan Earthquakes

– Developing recommendations for minimizing the spread of

false information

Key Findings

• Identified five factors that predict intention to transmit rumor that

relates to the Japan earthquakes: • Damage level (subjective experience of damage level)• Commitment (the presence of close victims)• Importance of the tweet• Familiarity of the tweet• Spread (estimated number of people who know the tweet)

• Interestingly, perceived accuracy of the tweet and the anxiety

associated with the tweet did not predict transmission intention.



Table 1. Multiple Regression Results on Rumor Transmission Intention

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Georgia Institute of Technology



Automating Emergency Data and Metadata Management to Support

Effective Short-Term and Long-Term Disaster Recovery Efforts

Team: Calton Pu*, Georgia Institute of Technology, Masaru Kitsuregawa,

University of Tokyo, Japan.

Objective: Development of a generic tool that supports

centralized sensor data collection, metadata management, and

information retrieval in a timely, scalable and practical manner

Key Findings

• There are many sensor data sources that are used

mainly for recovery purposes, but they can become

invaluable resources for research if sufficient metadata

can be collected for their appropriate interpretation by

researchers.

• Existing data and metadata management tools for

sensors are not appropriate for high volume sensor

data from numerous and diverse data sources.

Furthermore, the proliferation of new sensors that

generate more data (both in quantity and variety) may

actually aggravate the problem by overloading the

limited capabilities of current data management tools.



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Georgia Institute of Technology



Population Protection and Monitoring in Response to Radiological

Incidents

Team: Eva K Lee*, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atsuo Suzuki, NanZan

University, Japan

Objectives: Design and advance information – decision support

system for population protection and emergency response, and

establish a national knowledge databank

- identify people in immediate danger; those

who need medical treatment for

contamination or exposure; recommend and

facilitate practical steps to minimize risk; rapid

screening and decontamination; register

people for long-term health monitoring; and

service the displaced population on day-to-day

needs.

Key Findings

• On-the-ground:• Lack of strategies and emergency

guidelines for rapid screening and

decontamination for both workers and

citizens

• Lack of knowledge of radiation safety and

emergency response processes, even for

those living very close to nuclear plants

• Advances: • Collected critical data related to

radiological emergency response

processes

• Information-decision support system

developed helps with large-scale

radiological emergency response (social,

logistics, policies)



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Opportunities for Future Research-



What new questions raised by these events require basic research?

� Can building information models be leveraged to assist during rapid damage

assessment?

� Will collaborative crowdsourcing coupled with consumer level mobile devices

obtain expert quality assessments?

� Can interactive dialog agents assist in this process?

� What are the communication cues necessary for remote collaboration and

shared situational awareness?

� Digital volunteerism: emergence, leadership, resiliency (Little is known about

the digital volunteers who converge during disasters, such as how they are

organized, how they conduct their work, why they do what they do, etc.)

� Develop communication protocols suitable for emergency

� More basic research is needed (1) to better understand people’s cognitive

behavior including reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making, and (2) to

design better social media systems based on the understanding of cognitive

behavior.

� Large-scale mathematical modeling, decision analysis and real-time systems

for emergency response must be advanced.




What new data are available as a result of these events?

• Annotated and geo-located images and videos of earthquake

damaged buildings

• Recorded collaborative dialogs of the damage assessment

process

• Detailed damage assessment reports for buildings used in this

exercise

• A complete 3-D model of inner-city Christchurch with immersive

panoramic images

• Data about communication failure

• Timeline on evacuation, sociological information regarding

citizen knowledge and after-event psychological and medical

burden

• Tremendous amount of data via social media

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What unique aspects of these events require the development of a focused research program?

• Crowdsourcing has been successfully used during planning for

sheltering and aiding in earthquake hit regions and has a potential

to access to structural experts to increase the speed of rapid

assessments

• The interplay between technical and social aspects

• Trust and trustworthiness through digital media post disaster

• Developing methods for managing, sampling, and analyzing large

set of data from social media and multiple sensor sources

• Strategic planning and operations capabilities for emergency

response and medical preparedness for radiological incidents.

Opportunities for Future Research

What are the important lessons from these larger than expected events for the U.S.?

• Rapid assessment of infrastructure damage is critical for response agencies to

plan for sheltering displaced people

• Crowd sourcing played an important supporting role in providing information to

response agencies in both Japan and NZ

• Disaster coordination networks and integration of digital volunteers into official

communications efforts are critical.

• Develop standards, regulations, and systems for cellular based emergency

communications

• Intelligent usage and interpretation of free data sources

• Strategic planning and operations capabilities for emergency response and

medical preparedness for radiological incidents is one of the critical

cornerstones for US Homeland Security, along with biological and chemical

incidents. The Japan incident underscores its paramount importance. Such needs

are wide-spread as many nations employ nuclear plants for energy generation.



Documents

Information Technology I · Koyama CaltonPu Masaru Kitsuregawa Eva K Lee (Group Leader) AtsuoSusuki Japan and NZ Earthquakes RAPID and Research Needs Workshop Arlington, VA Feb 9