Technology-mediated Citizens’ Co-Production on Disaster Management: The case of highly urbanized city

Abstract

Disaster Management (DM) has been a forefront for research in the 21st century as countries around the world have faced tremendous challenges relating to an overwhelming and imminent scale of disaster occurrences. To bolster disaster preparedness and recovery, DM has been crafted and emerged as a mechanism as well as a strategy in reducing the impact of disaster on humans and structures. In parallel, extant literature and experts in the field have in constant debate on the relevance and the role of information and communications technology (ICT) to play in disaster management in surmounting the posited challenges. Accordingly, it is vital that ICT is developed in promoting innovation and collaboration among government and the people. However, the evolving and dynamic nature of citizens to participate and co-produce in technology-enabled disaster management still needs to be explored. The Philippines is one of the most recurrently visited by disasters due to its geographical location making it susceptible to many threats. The country has numerous initiatives for disaster risk reduction and management, including the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (NOAH), a flagship ICT-based program in combating disasters. However, the implementation of DM programs remains many challenges especially that Local Government Units (LGUs) have different disaster risks management and implementation styles. This research would fill in the present gap by exploring the dynamics on how the citizens could be a co-producer of relevant information with the government in a technology-based platform. This research also employs an interpretive methodology, that is usually aimed in creating an interpretation of the context on an information system or technology. The qualitative case study design is also ideal in an interpretive approach by enabling people to express their understanding of howNOAH could promote the process of co-production, qualitatively analyzed using thematic analysis.