In the last 20 years the debate on disasters preparedness and relief operations underlined the need to evolve from “war” against hazards to “preparedness” in order to decrease vulnerability [Wisner et al., 1994]. In this perspective the key word “resilience” fosters a cultural change that should drive the risk & emergency management towards a participatory dimension involving scientific communities, experts, civil protection bodies, media, citizens, volunteers, civil society. In other words: from protection (passive behaviour) to resilience, supporting a wide responsibility and proactive behaviour. One of the enabler of this cultural change is the open knowledge approach, that could allow a better understanding and communication on Natural Hazards and related risks. Without any doubt, recent disasters highlighted how the new media increase the information complexity; the internet and the web 2.0 have augmented information and data availability, however some critical points are arising: easy access to information, precision and reliability, that are at the centre of the current debate. The internet "information deluge" is a continuous and rather chaotic flow, with poor filtering function, that brings to the idea of a tool to organise complexity allowing a better knowledge transfer, education, communication, information spreading and sense-making. How to give answer to the increasing need of clear, and trustworthy information on NH? How to open knowledge? How to support a citizen-science perspective? Which are the best practices to switch towards a new resilient information ecosystem? The challenge is to find models and tools to build an open and structured knowledge to facilitate the access to validated and reliable information, build a common understanding on NH and local risks,  so to react and take the right decision in order to cope with and reduce the impact of disasters. A “Natural Hazard Wikisaurus” (NHW) is here proposed as a “matrix” of a model to be used in “practice”. The NHW is intended as a structured and collaborative web platform with validated information on geosciences to support a common understanding; the overall aim is to propose an operational and collaborative approach for acknowledged practitioners, citizens, civil servants, media representatives, and students allowed to collaborate or to retrieve information through the collective content validated by the scientific users of the platform. Furthermore, this first step could foster a next step that will take advantage from the power of «linked data» so to contribute to a natural hazard semantic, or to a «semantic disaster resilience».

FROM «INFORMATION DELUGE» TO STRUCTURED KNOWLEDGE. How web technologies and web collaboration could support Natural Hazards Communication

RAPISARDI, MARIA ELENA;GIARDINO, Marco
2013-01-01

Abstract

In the last 20 years the debate on disasters preparedness and relief operations underlined the need to evolve from “war” against hazards to “preparedness” in order to decrease vulnerability [Wisner et al., 1994]. In this perspective the key word “resilience” fosters a cultural change that should drive the risk & emergency management towards a participatory dimension involving scientific communities, experts, civil protection bodies, media, citizens, volunteers, civil society. In other words: from protection (passive behaviour) to resilience, supporting a wide responsibility and proactive behaviour. One of the enabler of this cultural change is the open knowledge approach, that could allow a better understanding and communication on Natural Hazards and related risks. Without any doubt, recent disasters highlighted how the new media increase the information complexity; the internet and the web 2.0 have augmented information and data availability, however some critical points are arising: easy access to information, precision and reliability, that are at the centre of the current debate. The internet "information deluge" is a continuous and rather chaotic flow, with poor filtering function, that brings to the idea of a tool to organise complexity allowing a better knowledge transfer, education, communication, information spreading and sense-making. How to give answer to the increasing need of clear, and trustworthy information on NH? How to open knowledge? How to support a citizen-science perspective? Which are the best practices to switch towards a new resilient information ecosystem? The challenge is to find models and tools to build an open and structured knowledge to facilitate the access to validated and reliable information, build a common understanding on NH and local risks,  so to react and take the right decision in order to cope with and reduce the impact of disasters. A “Natural Hazard Wikisaurus” (NHW) is here proposed as a “matrix” of a model to be used in “practice”. The NHW is intended as a structured and collaborative web platform with validated information on geosciences to support a common understanding; the overall aim is to propose an operational and collaborative approach for acknowledged practitioners, citizens, civil servants, media representatives, and students allowed to collaborate or to retrieve information through the collective content validated by the scientific users of the platform. Furthermore, this first step could foster a next step that will take advantage from the power of «linked data» so to contribute to a natural hazard semantic, or to a «semantic disaster resilience».
2013
GeoItalia 2013
Pisa
16-18 settembre 2013
Geoitalia 2013 Abstract
1
285
285
terminologia specialistica; Natural hazards; Web 2.0
E. Rapisardi; S. Di Franco; M. Giardino
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/153333
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