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Microblogging During Two Natural Hazards Events:

What Twitter May Contribute to Situational Awareness

ColoradoUniversity of Colorado

at Boulder

Sarah ViewegKate Starbird

Amanda L. HughesLeysia Palen

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Social Media & Emergency

Facebook, Community Websites, Online Forums

2007 VT

Shootings

2007 Southern

California Fires

2008 NIU

Shootings 2008 Sichuan

Earthquake

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Situational Awareness

All knowledge that is accessible and can be

integrated into a coherent picture, whenrequired, to assess and cope with asituation

- Sarter & Woods, 1991

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Studying Twitter

Twitter space

TweetTweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

Tweet

TweetTweet

Sample

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Search Terms

RR Floods: March 8 April 27Search Terms: red river, redriver

Returned: 13,153 tweets

OK Fires: April 8 13

Search Terms: oklahoma, okfire, grassfire,grassfire

Returned: 6674 tweets

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Unique Users

RR Floods: March 8 April 27

Returned: 4983 unique Twitter users

OK Fires: April 8 13

Returned: 3852 unique Twitter users

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TwitterUser Tweet StreamUser Tweet Streams

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Matches Search Terms

User Tweet Streams

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But what are they talking about here?

User Tweet Streams

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User Streams

RR Floods

Returned: 4,592,466 tweets

OK Fires

Returned: 1,986,091 tweets

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Threshold

Users with >3 tweets that include a keyword

On-topic: From MWCFD: Eastwood addition, alotof damage. Parthas power, part doesn't.

Won'topen it back up

Off-topic: My Horoscope for today: Your hard

workalways paysoff -- although itmighttake longer than you want itto.

Local Individuals

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Final Data Sets

RR Local Individual set:

19,162 tweets

49 unique Twitter users

OKLocal Individual set:

2779 tweets

46 unique Twitter users

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Geo-location Information

65mphwinds inNewcastle

Oklahoma - Turner Turnpike

closed down because oflow

visibility

25th street past 40th ave inFargo has beenclosed

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Geo-Location Information

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Address/Intersection

Placename

Highways

City Name

County Name

OK Fires

RR Floods

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Differences between RR and OK

Wildfire vs. Flood

Impact vs. Warning

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Location Referencing

Tweets that include information that use oneplace as a reference for another or the mention

of a location via a landmark

We are onthewestern central edge

of town, sowe are afair distance

fromany water for now.

Could see flamesabove the trees

two miles away from my house

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Markedness

The river isnowover 40 feet

and there has beena breachinthe dike; neighborhood a

few blockssouthof us is

evacuating.

The Sheyenne River went up 10

feet in 12 hours

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Implicature

Current Red River level in Grand

Forks is 45.57feet

More than7 grassfireson going,

house burnsnear Childress Tx

Guard willsend helicoptersto

assist in #OKFiresnear Velma

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Situational Updates

Warning

Preparatory Activity

Fire/Hazard Location

Flood Level

Weather

Wind

Visibility

Evacuation Information

Volunteer Information

Animal Management

Damage/Injury reportsRoad Conditions

Advice

- emergency

- information space

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Differences in Situational Updates

OK Fires higher in:

Fire Line/Emergency Location

WindEvacuation Info

Damage/Injury

RRFloods higher in:

Flood Level

PreparatoryA

ctivityWeather

Volunteer Info

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Tweets with Geo-location andSituational Update information are

more likely to be re-tweeted

Re-Tweets

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Situational Awareness

Features

Bottom-up communication of information

Information people orient around

Possibility to collate information and get anidea of the big picture

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Warning(hazards-focused)

Response to

Warning

Preparation(pre-warning)

personal community personal community

Evacuation Sheltering Animal

Management

Damage & Injury

Advice

preparationpossible

exploitationinfo

space

Other

Environmental

Conditions

weather visibilityroad

Hazards Location

(pre-warning)

general relativeprecise

personal

location

specific

location

historical

hazard

......

...

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Personal:

@user I

tcan

sta

rtanywhere -

asimplespark

can burn downawhole neighborhood. I watered

the yard and roofand hope for the best

Community:

Red inFargo jumped afootovernightnow@34

and rising. Urgentcallfor sandbagging

volunteers. Head tothe Dome or call 476-4000

Response to Warning

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Warning(hazards-focused)

Response to

Warning

Preparation(pre-warning)

personal community personal community

Evacuation Sheltering Animal

Management

Damage & Injury

Advice

preparationpossible

exploitationinfo

space

Other

Environmental

Conditions

weather visibilityroad

Hazards Location

(pre-warning)

general relativeprecise

personal

location

specific

location

historical

hazard

......

...

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Precise:

Atleasta dozenhouseshave burned

eastof Lake Draper. Area includes

land between SE 119 to SE 149 &

Hiawassee & Anderson Rds

Relative:

We R onthe edge ofthe city hre, but

20-30 milesfromthe fires

Hazards Location

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Contribute to Situational

Awareness

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Why Does This Matter?

One way to tackle the problem of managing

crises is to look at how people communicate

about them

Primes us for thinking about how to extract

information and shape behavior

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Thank You!

Project EpicEmpowering the Public with Information in Crisis

http://epic.cs.colorado.edu/

Acknowledgements:

This work is supported by NSF IIS-0546315 and

IIS-0910586