HUMAN+ - Humanitarian Safety through Social Media based Refugee Flows

Date: 

Thursday, September 5, 2019, 12:00pm to 1:30pm

Location: 

CGIS South S050, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA 02138

By: Bernd Resch

Abstract: The intensified migratory movements of the last few years are increasingly posing major challenges to authorities, municipalities, relief organizations and NGOs. Particularly, appropriate reception, transfer, supply and accommodation of refugees are still deficient because real-time data to ensure humanitarian security is greatly lacking. Thus, HUMAN+ aims to develop an integrative, near real-time situational awareness picture based on social media, in-situ imagery and remote sensing data. The initiative aims to detect and predict refugee flows, identify migration focal points, and provide the generated information in a user-specific, interactive visualisation. Apart from the methodological developments, HUMAN+ thoroughly addresses ethical, sociological and legal aspects, ensuring comprehensive data protection and privacy preservation. HUMAN+ addresses three scenarios: domestic refugee movements, cross-border situations, and monitoring international crisis regions.

About the speaker: see https://gis.harvard.edu/people/bernd-resch-resch