Guest Editor's Introduction: Special Section on Emerging Technologies for Disaster Management

The papers in this special section examine new and emerging technologies for disaster management. We live in a world in which natural and man-made disasters (such as earthquakes, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, and industrial accidents) often occur. These disasters are so sudden in nature, so causing loss of human lives and interruption of essential public services (such as health care, electricity, water, transportation and communication). Disaster management aims to reduce or avoid potential losses from hazards, ensure prompt and appropriate assistance to victims and achieve a rapid and effective recovery. In recent years, new computing/communication technologies have emerged to improve the efficiency of disaster management; for example, crowdsourcing has been applied in the Nepal earthquake to collect the latest information from earthquake-affected areas and create a dynamic map that shows the locations in which aid and relief are needed. Although some preliminary attempts have been made to apply emerging technologies for disaster management, there are many open challenges that need to be addressed to fully exploit the potentials of these promising technologies.