Social Media-Informed Urban Crisis Detection.

This research project examines the potential utility of a social media-informed crisis detection system to aid Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) in the identification of hazards across the state. To assess that utility, the research team first analyzed two case studies with the goal of identifying the relevant information contained within posted social media data. Case study data were drawn from hundreds of thousands of social media postings in Georgia, and include: (1) the winter storm that impacted north Georgia January 16-17, 2018 (N = 436 after processing) and (2) the flooding that occurred across the state of Georgia from Tropical Storm Irma from September 10-17, 2017 (N = 910 after processing). Nearest Neighbor Ratio analysis identified that postings were geographically clustered in areas of higher populations, but not statistically significantly clustered in terms of either sentiment or primary topic. The research team then analyzed sentiment as a method of ranking the social media data relevance and determined that neutral sentiment can function as a secondary filtration method for relevance. Finally, the team specified an approach to integrating this data visually that aligns with GDOT processes and with existing Waze data streams currently utilized by GDOT. The findings from this research and, in particular, the specification of a social media-informed crisis detection system, provide GDOT and other state agencies with a deeper understanding of the role social media can serve in crisis detection, tracking, and visualization, as well as providing a set of specifications to design and implement such a system.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $99998
• Contract Numbers:

  GDOT RP 18-34

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Georgia Department of Transportation

  One Georgia Center
  600 West Peachtree Street, NW
  Atlanta, GA  United States  30308
• Managing Organizations:

  Georgia Department of Transportation

  One Georgia Center
  600 West Peachtree Street, NW
  Atlanta, GA  United States  30308
• Project Managers:

  Thapa, Sunil

• Performing Organizations:

  Georgia Tech Research Corporation

  505 Tenth Street
  Atlanta, GA  United States  30332-0420
• Principal Investigators:

  Taylor, John E.

• Start Date: 20190505
• Expected Completion Date: 20200711
• Actual Completion Date: 20200811
• USDOT Program: Information-Based Initiatives

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Crisis management; Disasters and emergency operations; Information management; Social media; Storms; Urban areas
• Identifier Terms: Georgia Department of Transportation
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Planning and Forecasting; Security and Emergencies; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01748378
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Georgia Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: GDOT RP 18-34
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Aug 22 2020 11:59AM