Emergency apps are primarily educational, finds a report on India’s disaster recovery measures
There’s been a lot of news about the use of apps to crowdsource on-the-ground info to help direct resources in disaster-stricken areas as of late — but are these apps actually as effective as reported? Researchers Vibhas Sukhwani and Rajib Shaw from Kaio University examined 33 mobile apps available for common use in India and found that these apps were primarily educational, with “highly limited outreach”. The researchers studied free to download apps for the Android operating system, examining features such as number of downloads, user rating and app interface.
“In the wake of growing frequency and intensity of disasters in India, the urgent need for GPS-based mobile apps that substantiate crowd sourcing and spatial mapping of disasters has been realized to enhance data sharing and disaster communication at various levels,” worth Sukwhani and Shaw. “To ensure the greater outreach of disaster-related mobile apps, the varying community interests like easy functioning of applications need to be taken into consideration.”
Source:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590061719300523#s0065
