Strengthening links between technologies and society for European disaster resilience

“LINKS – Strengthening links between technologies and society for European disaster resilience” is a project awarded in the Secure Societies programme (SU-SEC) of the EU Horizon 2020 programme. The H2020 programme deals with R&D and innovation towards establishing disaster-resilient societies. Dr. Kees Boersma from the Crisis Resilience Academy is the PI and the leader, dr. Romy van der Lee from the ISR is co-applicant. The consortium consisting of 16 public and private partners from 8 European countries and 1 partner from Japan. The project’s budget is 5,2 M euro.LINKS sets out to understand and assess the effects of social media and crowd-sourcing (SMCS) on European disaster resilience. The project will develop a framework which can be used to understand, measure and govern SMCS for disasters, taking into account the diversity among disaster risk perception and vulnerability (DRPV), disaster management processes (DMP) and applied disaster community technologies (DCT) across European communities. The LINKS Framework consists of scientific methods, practical tools, and guidelines addressing researchers, practitioners and policy makers. It will be developed and evaluated through five practitioner-driven European cases, representing different disaster scenarios (earthquake, flood, industrial, terror, drought), cutting across disaster management phases and diverse socioeconomic and cultural settings in four countries (Italy, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands). Furthermore, LINKS sets out to create a community of stakeholders, the LINKS Community, which brings together first-responders, public authorities, civil society organizations, business communities, citizens and researchers across Europe dedicated to improving European disaster resilience through the use of SMCS.The execution and success of LINKS relies on multiple levels of stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange within the LINKS Community, facilitated online through the LINKS Community Center and in person through the LINKS Community Workshops. Overall, LINKS aims to provide sustainable, advanced learning on SMCS in disasters, in order to strengthen links between technologies and society for improved European disaster resilience.