A review of informal volunteerism in emergencies and disasters: Definition, opportunities and challenges

Abstract

Despite highly specialised and capable emergency management systems, ordinary citizens are usually first on the scene in an emergency or disaster, and remain long after official services have ceased. Citizens often play vital roles in helping those affected to respond and recover, and can provide invaluable assistance to official agencies. However, in most developed countries, emergency and disaster management relies largely on a workforce of professionals and, to varying degrees, volunteers affiliated with official agencies. Those who work outside of such systems have tended to be viewed as a nuisance or liability, and their efforts are often undervalued. Given increasing disaster risk worldwide due to population growth, urban development and climate change, it is likely that 'informal' volunteers will provide much of the additional surge capacity required to respond to more frequent emergencies and disasters in the future. This paper considers the role of informal volunteers in emergency and disaster management. Definitions of volunteerism are reviewed and it is argued that there is an overemphasis on volunteering within, and for, state and formal organisations. We offer a broader definition of 'informal volunteerism' that recognises the many ways ordinary citizens volunteer their time, knowledge, skills and resources to help others in times of crisis. Two broad types of informal volunteerism are identified -emergent and extending-and the implications for emergency and disaster management are considered. Particular attention is given to increasing 'digital volunteerism' due to the greater accessibility of sophisticated but simple information and communication technologies. Culture and legal liability are identified as key barriers to greater participation of informal volunteers. We argue that more adaptive and inclusive models of emergency and disaster management are needed to harness the capacities and resilience that exist within and across communities.

Crowdsourcing, Citizen Science or Volunteered Geographic Information? The Current State of Crowdsourced Geographic Information

“…Crowdsourcing, compared to citizen science, has much larger search volumes, but this is unsurprising given the commercial interest in crowdsourcing as a business model. The large peak in the term crowdsourcing coincides with large-scale efforts by citizens to search for the missing Malaysian Airplane (flight MH370); over two million people helped search for the missing aircraft by analyzing satellite images [50]. The rest of the search terms from Table 1 were then put into the Google Trends application.…”

“…search for the missing Malaysian Airplane (flight MH370); over two million people helped search for the missing aircraft by analyzing satellite images [50]. The rest of the search terms from Table 1 were then put into the Google Trends application.…”

Preparation Measures of Volunteers in Disasters in Hospitals of Tehran

“…Undoubtedly, among the multiple institutions and organizations related to disaster and rescue management, healthcare systems, particularly hospitals, are the main unit of providing services in disasters (3). Hospitals are faced with shortages of nursing and rescue forces in disasters (4). Also, there is the possibility of damage to the hospital and the staff during unexpected events.…”

Sources of VGI for Mapping

“…Crowdsourcing can be used for financial remuneration (Buhrmester et al, 2011) or for other, more altruistic reasons, e.g. searching for the remains of the Malaysian Airways plane that went missing in 2014 (Whittaker et al, 2015) or providing hotel and restaurant reviews on sites like TripAdvisor; other initiatives can be found in Sester et al (2014).…”