A web GIS-based platform to harvest georeferenced data from social networks: Examples of data collection regarding disaster events

Abstract

Whenever disaster situations occur the civil protection authorities need to have fast access to data that may help to plan emergency response. To contribute to the collection and integration of all available data a platform that aims to harvest Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) from social networks and collaborative projects was created. This enables the integration of VGI with data coming from other sources, such as data collected by physical sensors in real time and made available through Applications Programming Interface (APIs), as well as, for example, official maps. The architecture of the created platform is described and its first prototype presented. Some example queries are performed and the results are analyzed.