An assessment of potential improvements in social capital, risk awareness, and preparedness from digital technologies

Abstract. Contributions to social capital, risk awareness and preparedness constitute the parameters against which applications of digital technologies in the field of disaster risk management should be tested. We propose here an evaluation of four of these, mobile positioning data, social media crowdsourcing, drones and satellite imaging, with an additional focus on acceptability and feasibility. The assessment is carried out through a survey disseminated among stakeholders. The frame of the analysis also grants the opportunity to investigate to what extent different methodologies to aggregate and evaluate the 10 results, the CRITIC model, the dCRITIC model, the Entropy model, the Mean Weight model and the Standard Deviation model, may influence the preference of one technology over the others. We find that the different assumptions on which these methodologies rely deliver diverging results. We therefore recommend future research to be based on a sensitivity analysis that considers multiple and alternatives methods to evaluate survey results.