The Incorporation of Social Media in an Emergency Supply and Demand Framework in Disaster Response

In recent decades, the number of disasters has risen drastically, causing social, economy and environmental damage across the world. Natural disasters are any catastrophic event caused by natural processes of the earth, such as earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, and volcanic eruptions. In times of crisis, some of the most important relief needs are basic needs such as water, food, shelter, and toiletries, and during crisis, governments, organisations and many individuals will spring into actions to offer help to disaster victims. Therefore, it is important to know what is needed to be offered during this disaster. Social media is becoming one of the most important tools to be used as a mean of communications in times of crisis to match the supply and demand of needs. During disaster, it is important that government, private sectors, and individuals stays connected and social media can be used to facilitate these social interactions and connections to help all stakeholders to prepare, respond to and recover from disasters. This paper provides examples of how social media such as Facebook, amongst others, was used by relief organisations, governments and individuals in times of crisis. An emergency supply and demand framework, incorporating the use of social media, was developed, and it was proposed to be used by the National Disaster Management Agency Malaysia (NADMA) for better decision making process in future disaster relief efforts.