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| Google Crisis Response | |
|---|---|
| Name | Google Crisis Response |
| Type | Initiative |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Founder | |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Crisis maps, alerts, information hubs |
Google Crisis Response
Google Crisis Response is an initiative by Google that aggregates, formats, and disseminates information for humanitarian emergencies, disasters, and public safety incidents. It provides tools and services to assist responders, media, non-governmental organizations such as International Committee of the Red Cross, and multilateral bodies like the United Nations during events including the 2010 Haiti earthquake, 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina. The initiative integrates mapping, alerting, and data visualization capabilities drawn from projects and platforms developed across the Alphabet Inc. ecosystem.
The project centralizes mapping and information services used in crises via platforms including Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Public Alerts, Google Crisis Map, and elements of Google Cloud Platform. It aims to support emergency management actors such as Federal Emergency Management Agency, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and Médecins Sans Frontières by providing situational awareness, shelter locations, and hotline information during incidents like the 2014 Kashmir floods and 2015 Nepal earthquake. The initiative leverages partnerships with agencies like National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States Geological Survey, and international news organizations including BBC News and The New York Times.
Work began in the mid-2000s as Google combined Mapping and search capabilities after events such as the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. Developments accelerated following the 2010 Haiti earthquake when volunteers and NGOs used Google Earth and Google Maps tools for crowdsourced damage assessment alongside humanitarian organizations like Direct Relief and ShelterBox. Subsequent milestones include integration of Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System feeds, rollout of Public Alerts for earthquakes and floods in collaboration with agencies like United States Geological Survey and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and adoption of cloud-based analytic services used during incidents such as Typhoon Haiyan and Cyclone Pam.
Key offerings include crisis maps that combine layers from OpenStreetMap contributors and authoritative data from agencies like National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Public Alerts that publish emergency notifications from partners including United States Geological Survey, Japan Meteorological Agency, and European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre; and information hubs that compile resources from NGOs such as International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and agencies like UNICEF. Other components comprise damage assessment tools used by organizations including American Red Cross and analytic platforms built on Google Cloud BigQuery, Google Maps Platform, and satellite imagery services supplied by partners like Planet Labs and Maxar Technologies.
Technologies used include geospatial visualization from Google Earth Engine, database engines like BigQuery, machine learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, and hosting on Google Cloud Platform. Data sources encompass satellite imagery from providers like Landsat and private firms, seismic data from United States Geological Survey and European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, weather model outputs from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and crowdsourced mapping via OpenStreetMap and volunteers coordinated through initiatives like Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. Integration with notification standards and schemas aligns with organizations such as International Telecommunication Union and systems like Common Alerting Protocol.
The initiative partners with humanitarian and scientific institutions including United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, World Health Organization, Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and research centers such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Collaboration with government agencies includes Federal Emergency Management Agency, United States Geological Survey, and Japan Meteorological Agency, while private-sector partners include Maxar Technologies, Planet Labs, and media organizations such as Reuters and Associated Press. Volunteer and civil-society collaborations have included groups like Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and CrisisMappers.
Notable deployments include crisis maps and information hubs created for the 2010 Haiti earthquake, which aided coordination among NGOs like Médecins Sans Frontières and agencies such as United Nations Development Programme; Public Alerts for the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and earthquake alerts integrated with Apple Inc. and Android (operating system) notification ecosystems; and mapping and shelter layers used during Hurricane Maria (2017) response operations involving Federal Emergency Management Agency and Pan American Health Organization. The initiative’s tools have been used for disease outbreak tracking in coordination with World Health Organization responses to events including 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa and support for logistics in humanitarian responses conducted by International Committee of the Red Cross.
Critics and privacy advocates such as Electronic Frontier Foundation and researchers at institutions including Harvard University and Oxford University have raised concerns about data sharing, location privacy, and the potential for misuse of imagery and aggregated datasets. Ethical questions emerged over crowdsourced mapping accuracy in crises like the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the balance between rapid information dissemination and verification emphasized by organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Debates with governmental authorities such as United States Department of Homeland Security and civil-society stakeholders have focused on consent, data retention policies, and transparency in partnerships with commercial imagery providers such as Maxar Technologies.
Category:Humanitarian technology