The frequency and intensity of natural disasters has been on the rise for the past couple decades, and scientists are reporting this trend is likely to continue. This trend has contributed to an increase in damage to infrastructure and only complicated the efforts of emergency groups to adequately respond to these events. With wildfire season upon us and hurricane season yet to come, there is an ever increasing need to effectively respond to natural disasters. Therefore, it is important for emergency response groups to have reliable on the ground information, so that people and supplies can be sent to the correct locations, and that triage can be implemented effectively in an organized manner.
Impact of Hurricane Sandy
Fortunately, Web 2.0 technologies such as Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) applications provided emergency groups and agencies with the tools needed to efficiently collect a massive amount of real time field data. Although these applications have many positive attributes, the lack of quality control in the data has been a long standing issue. This is where Moonshadow Mobile’s Ground Game 2 application comes in.
Since traditional VGI applications allow for anyone to collect and send data, there can be issues on how reliable the collected data is. Non-professionals using VGI applications can mistakenly give incorrect or leave out vital information. Ground Game 2 is the perfect tool to seamlessly collect real time field data while providing quality control. With Ground Game 2, only people you issue an account log-in can collect data so you can be assured that the information you are collecting is reliable and complete.
Ground Game 2 is armed with an extensive data base of over 220 million Americans across the country and the 110 million addresses in which they reside. This allows for the collection of data at either the individual or address level. With Ground Game 2, you can organize data by breaking an impacted area into smaller Walking Lists and assign them to your field workers. Using their iPhone, iPad, or Android device, your field workers can then go through their assigned area, record and send data back to your organizations headquarters. Once in the database, the data can be analyzed and visualized, and your teams progress can be tracked using the web interface which is built off Bing Maps.
Though natural disasters continue to be an issue, new technology in many different areas means that we are increasingly capable to take measures to prevent natural disasters, and to respond quickly, efficiently, and effectively. Ground Game 2 and better data organization is just one facet of new technologies that are emerging to create a safer, stronger environment for humankind.
