India: When disaster strikes, can big data save us? - Opinion
'Government help, relief camps, and other disaster mitigation measures will help us during nature’s fury', writes Noah DMello in an opinion piece on CIO India. He continues that if you give data scientists and big data a chance; they just might be the Noah who could save us during the great floods.
When disaster strikes, we are expected to look for a safe haven and wait for the relief to arrive. Avoiding natural disasters as well as being completely prepared for them is not possible, as witnessed in the recent Chennai floods. But can we rely on technology to save our lives during catastrophes? Yes, we can, writes DMello.
A research and development project on big data by B. Muthukumaran, Practice Head – Big Data, HTC Global Service, and his team, following the catastrophic floods in Chennai during December 2015 showed that by analyzing social media feeds, one can anticipate areas stricken with disaster, which can be used for post-disaster measures.