Humans as Sensors–Cross-Disciplinary Approaches Towards Smart, Resilient and Sustainable Responses in Humanitarian Action

Dear Colleagues,

The Guest Editors are inviting submissions for a Special Issue of Sensors on the subject area of “Humans as Sensors—Cross-Disciplinary Approaches Towards Smart, Resilient, and Sustainable Responses in Humanitarian Action”.

Several application domains are emerging which can be addressed by the use of sensors, such as: critical infrastructures, disasters, and humanitarian action. What is the support given to children and families when disasters strike communities? Is there preparedness to respond to these situations? How can that preparedness be supported? Is it possible to use information that is already available from humans to support the preparation for and response to disasters? Disasters can emerge from human situations (e.g., wars, master placements, industrial accidents, etc.) or can be natural events (e.g., fires, floods, earthquakes, epidemics). Regardless of the origin, action must take place to provide assistance and protection in such situations so that lives are saved and suffering is alleviated. This action requires information to be more assertive, and even if the required information exists or the communication systems are available, their recognition and use might be limited. Using sensors and community resilience to overcome disaster through the enhancement of social responsibility can involve citizens’ participation to assess human-centered risks and to identify mitigation strategies for the whole community. Particular attention can be given to the community fragilities, both addressing the social value of tangible and intangible cultural assets as a matter of community resilience motivation and building a solid solidarity mechanism around citizens at risk. Communities are frequently inattentive to the hazards they face, underestimate those they can easily identify, and overestimate their ability to cope with a crisis. Public information and co-planning have demonstrated to be useful tools in environmental impact assessment. In disaster risk reduction, they can prove crucial in mobilizing the community’s resources, expertise, professionals, and volunteers, in all stages of humanitarian support (i.e., before disaster strikes, during the emergency, and in the recovery phase). People will better follow advice and response suggestions when they feel engaged in the processes that generated the procedures. Additionally, they will better respond to incidents if they are provided the proper tools (including the use of IoT to rapidly communicate critical information to people at risk to reduce anxiety and guide them to a safe place). The aim of this Special Issue is to improve the understanding of how using Humans as Sensors can support and improve community and humanitarian responses, from cross-disciplinary approaches. Topics of interest for publication may include, but are not limited to:

· Sensors as the basis of preparedness in humanitarian response
· Sensors as the basis for humanitarian response
· Using IoT as a source of intelligence for humanitarian purposes
· Using IoT to improve community resilience
· Using sensors to monitor migration movements
· The relevance of data for humanitarian response
· Case studies of disasters and humanitarian action
· Understanding health risk of disasters from a community perspective
· Risk communication in emergencies
· Logistics processes to support humanitarian aid
· Using gamification and crowdsourcing to enhance community resilience
· Building community resilience and reduce vulnerability in emergency situations
· Knowledge transfer/action on public promotion and disaster risk mitigation
· Risk analysis and adaptation
· Resilience and sustainability

Research that represents different methods and styles is also welcome. These include, but are not limited to, new approaches using cross-disciplinary interpretations. Research based on compelling case studies of single or multiple organizations are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Ana Lúcia Martins
Prof. Dr. Joao Ferreira
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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