Flood disaster demonstrates the power of social networks

Flood disaster demonstrates the power of social networks

The power of social networking sites to convene and harness the creativity of citizens has been highlighted by the recent flooding disaster in Manila. When the city flooded in 2009, citizens logged onto social networking site Facebook to report which parts of the city that were already submerged. These were collated by a local academic then plotted on a Google map which was completed earlier this month.

The resulting Typhoon Ondoy Maximum Flood Height map is now considered by the city authorities to be a key tool for disaster planning and risk reduction.

The online map demonstrates the value of the information produced by lay citizens for policy makers and it is also an excellent example of what Harvard Professor Yokai Benkler calls The Wealth of Networks.

The network metaphor is important for helping us to think about how to engage the public, particularly on a large scale. New and innovative methods that effectively engage the public often work because they tap into the existing activity of citizens and support them to achieve their goals. The Department for Energy and Climate Change’s Low Carbon Communities project - part funded by Sciencewise-ERC - is developing this approach to public engagement. The project is pioneering new ‘devolved and distributed’ approaches to engaging the public in designing, implementing and learning from low carbon initiatives.