Processing Big Data for Emergency Management

Emergencies are typically complex problems with serious consequences that must be solved in a limited amount of time to reduce any possible damage. Big data analysis leads to more assured decision making and better decisions can mean greater operational efficiencies, cost reductions and reduced risk. In this chapter, we discuss some issues on tackling emergency situation from the perspective of big data processing and management, including our approach for processing social media content. Communications during emergencies are so plentiful that it is necessary to sift through enormous data points to find information that is most useful during a given event. The chapter also presents our ongoing IT-system that processes and analyses social media data to transform the excessive volume of low information content into small volume but rich content that is useful to emergency personnel.