Emergency measures

While people continue to dispute the certainty of climate change, harping on about hoax e-mails and the like, news headlines are awash, forgive the pun, with stories of flooding in Pakistan, fires in Russia, and the threat of earth's biodiversity dwindling to a few spineless species.

The fact is, no matter how much money, time and energy we now pour into reducing greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures will continue to rise, climate patterns will change, and adaptation to these irreversible effects will become just as important as future mitigation strategies.

Societies and businesses - big and small, rich and poor - will feel the effects of environmental degradation, and the information and communication networks we've stretched to zettabytes and beyond will now become an increasingly important ally.

Emerging communication platforms are set to play a massive role in preparing for, managing, and recovering from disasters, whether to co-ordinate relief efforts, send news and warnings, access vital data or locate and contact people.

One thing you need in a crisis is information - immediate, accurate, contextual information. The stuff social networking thrives on; status updates take on a whole new meaning when they read “I'm alive”.

Finding specific, life-saving assistance is now only a Google entry away, and with most phones featuring Web support, this can make all the difference in an emergency. Stories emerged during the Haiti disaster of people using their smartphones to deal with injuries themselves, while waiting for help to come.

One US filmmaker, for example, credits the first-aid app on his iPhone with helping him treat a bleeding head wound and leg fracture. Following the app's advice on avoiding going into shock, he also set the phone's alarm to go off every 20 minutes.

Granted, this is an extraordinary case, but it demonstrates modern devices' ability to provide both vital information and the means to act on it. We may not all have access to high-end apps, but with mobile phones practically an extra limb these days, chances are a cellphone could be a lifeline to the outside world.

While the use of ICT in relief efforts is by no means new, leaps in the ways of sharing information means humanitarian agencies can use more sophisticated, integrated data to respond effectively to calls for help.

In Pakistan, which was hit with devastating floods earlier this month, telecoms support joined food and health supplies as an immediate priority. The World Food Programme - the UN agency tasked with IT services in emergency situations - has set up major tech partnerships so ICT teams can be deployed within 48 hours, anywhere in the world.

Status updates take on a whole new meaning when they read “I'm alive”.

Lezette Engelbrecht, copy editor and journalist, ITWeb

One of its solutions called Epic - Emergency Preparedness Integration Centre - helps to co-ordinate humanitarian work through the use of an online portal and a rugged handheld device. The portable wireless device makes desktop services mobile, so users can gain access to updated info on the host country, security, directory lists, maps, and other right-here, right-now stats they need.

Aid organisations traditionally follow strict protocol when it comes to sharing information. But, as they open up their content management systems, those in actual crisis situations can access the channels they need to get help, and offer specific, real-time insights into what's happening on the ground.

Then there's the ability to keep those on the outside abreast of what's happening in rubble-strewn or violent areas inaccessible to media, or before reporting or aid teams can get there. Local Twitter users, for example, have been delivering eye-witness accounts from inside hospitals during the public service strikes, and using the channel to circulate news updates, information on affected areas, and to mobilise volunteers.

With more and more people being able to access and share rich, contextual information, social media tools are enabling users to share this with relief agencies. The online crisis-mapping platform Ushahidi released a simplified version of its service, Crowdmap, this month, which bypasses the usually lengthy set-up process and allows users to crowdsource crisis events within minutes of signing on.

While it's not always possible to use social media during an actual disaster - when running for cover may be a primary concern - these networks also hold huge promise post-emergency. As scattered societies find their feet, and begin the process of reconnecting and rebuilding, new media platforms can deliver information on shelters, warn of disease outbreaks, and reunite family members.

As the UN points out, if information means survival for communities in crisis, then communication technologies are their lifelines.

Disasters are deceptive in that they seem like disconnected, once-off events. But the recent floods in China and Pakistan, the heat waves in the US and Russia - these are not just freak anomalies, but part of a global shift that will shape society for generations to come.

The Union of Concerned Scientists said earlier this month that the heat, fires and floods seen around the world are consistent with trends caused by global warming; and there's more bad news ahead. An international gathering at the UN to raise funds for Pakistan saw officials warning that climate change is increasing the risk of humanitarian disasters. Commentators said we should expect more large-scale weather events, as the planet bakes in a cloud of greed-induced greenhouse gas.

With these kinds of incidents set to become more frequent and widespread, new communication technologies will play an unprecedented role in our struggle to adapt to a harsher physical environment.

Hopefully, these same networks will also become platforms for creating solutions, as people collaborate and share information, experiences and ideas. Rebuilding a new world based on new priorities will require learning from the current calamities, and incorporating these lessons into preventative measures.

Interactive, cross-border conversations can feed a dynamic feedback loop, so the realities of today's disasters inform strategies for the future, with the combined insights of science and experience simultaneously reminding us where we've been, where we're headed, and what's ultimately at stake.

Lezette Engelbrecht, copy editor and journalist, thinks that with a certain amount of climate change now unavoidable, adaptation is a reality and planning for it requires urgent attention. Early warning systems, crisis management, and recovery programmes are all facilitated by communication, and if collaborative, information-rich platforms can stimulate innovation, then future states can be built on lessons from the past, not its ruins.