iSurvival: A Collaborative Mobile Network System for Disaster Management

When disaster strikes, optimal access to real-time information of the disaster situation during ‘blind time’ – the time prior to the arrival of the first responders and during response and recovery stages is essential to improve the effectiveness of the first responders and recovery. This paper describes a disaster management system, iSurvival, which uses specialist applications on the smart phones of those affected by disaster and wireless devices of first responders, to establish Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN), to facilitate the secure exchange of information in the disaster area, when the normal GSM and 3G telephone networks are compromised or unavailable. This information is further communicated with central control centre for analysis and resource scheduling for effective mobilisation of emergency services which are involved in rescue and recovery. The research, currently under the analysis and design stage, has been awarded a ‘Special Mention’ from Nokia for Ideas for Development Challenge 2012.