Twitter as a tool for the management and analysis of emergency situations: A systematic literature review

Abstract

The importance of timely, accurate and effective use of available information is essential to the proper management of emergency situations. In recent years, emerging technologies have provided new approaches towards the distribution and acquisition of crowdsourced information to facilitate situational awareness and management during emergencies. In this regard, internet and social networks have shown potential to be an effective tool in disseminating and obtaining up-to-date information. Among the most popular social networks, research has pointed to Twitter as a source of information that offers valuable real-time data for decision-making. The objective of this paper is to conduct a systematic literature review that provides an overview of the current state of research concerning the use of Twitter to emergencies management, as well as presents the challenges and future research directions.