A refugee tracking system in dCoST-ER: Disaster command and support centre for emergency response

Abstract

In dealing with chaotic condition during disasters, speedy and accurate response is an important task. One of critical concerns in disaster situation is the separation of family members because of high people movement in natural disaster evacuation. An important humanitarian action for that situation is tracking refugees so that they can be reunited with their families. We have designed a system for refugee tracking. The tracking system is part of a bigger system for a more comprehensive disaster response. The tracking system identifies refugees based on their personal ID and records their location. Once a refugee can be identified and tracked, the system can search for the other family members and group them for better treatment. A prototype of the system is also presented.