Measure of resiliency of Information, communication and other smart-technologies in underdeveloped flood-affected communities

Abstract

The perceptions of flood affected individuals on the use of Information, communication and other smart technologies (ICSTs) to improve communication flow between themselves and the flood management authorities is a largely under-explored field, especially, for underdeveloped and highly flood prone communities. One of the challenges faced by the community is the Lack of timely transportation systems and floods related information is the biggest challenge for all times. Historically, this lack of information has resulted in many causalities and major loss, establishing the rationale for the research question that “What types of ICSTs are used by the residents of emerging communities to attain transportation systems under floods related information and what are the influencing factors”. In total 1105 randomly selected households from the case-study were recruited to complete a questionnaire. A Multinomial Logistic Regression approach was employed to analyze the data. Seven different categories of ICSTs as dependent variables (DVs), and eighteen different independent variables (IDVs) based on the personal traits of individuals, socio-economic characteristics and awareness of the relevant authorities to contact for transportation systems and floods-specific information during flooding were modelled. Twelve IDVs were found to be significant in the model-fitting process and in total nineteen different statistically significant models were developed. The results illustrated perceived importance of each group of ICSTs according to different user categories. The research outcomes will contribute to the development of advanced ICSTs usage analytics driven policies and management frameworks, enhancing efficient transportation systems, search and rescue operations, evacuation strategies, and emergency logistics planning for flood-affected communities.

Keywords: Communities, Floods, Information Communication Technologies (ICT), Rescue And Search Operations, Smart Technologies, Transportation Systems

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007903