Innovative technologies to support appropriate accommodation in emergency shelters

Abstract

Recent developments have shown that disasters have the tendency to grow both in size and frequency all over the world. Earthquakes in Eastern Mediterranean region denote a major hazard. It is well known that this area hosts very complex active tectonics, accommodates major seismic sources and suffers from many deadly earthquakes. One of the main challenges after a mass disaster event is the care for the directly or indirectly affected population, gathering rapidly in great numbers at specific areas. For the appropriate organization of the emergency shelters, components such as coordination, communication and medical care are considered very important. The medical needs of evacuees must be identified and appropriate care and support must be provided. This paper presents the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) developed to support emergency services and temporary accommodation in order to speed up the initial procedures and improve the provided help to the affected people.