Understanding the impact of volunteered geographic information during the Queensland floods

Understanding the impact of volunteered geographic information during the Queensland floods

In Australia, and the State of Queensland in particular, the recent flood events and tropical cyclones events have dramatically impacted on people’s lives and damage in excess of 5 billion dollars has been reported across the state. As the varying flood events unfolded social media and crowd sourced geographic information played an important role in keeping people informed, especially as official channels of communication began to fail or were placed under extreme load. The government’s management of the Queensland floods and especially the role of the community in their assistance were widely applauded. Information and communication technologies played a critical role during the disaster and its management via the conventional communication channels such as radio, television and newspapers but also through third party social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook. People who never signed up to Facebook and Twitter started doing so and the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) radio launched a link to crowd sourced reports on flooding. This paper will review the various forms of volunteered and shared information that occurred throughout the Queensland floods and their impacts. The potential of volunteered geographic information for post-disaster assessment through damage, planning and official flood lines will be examined.

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