Analysis of the use of social networks in acquiring information on disastrous events

Social networking impacts today numerous aspects of the society, from marketing to how to monitor and manage companies and events, including social events, epidemics, and catastrophic events. Connecting channels may contain network structures and enables circulating data to be extracted, analyzed and visualized. This allowed the development of social network-based monitoring systems and support systems for decision making. We present a case study on the use of social networks based on Twitter for accessing virtually instantly information on fires and effects of earthquakes and explosions, for Romanian and English languages. The system, developed in the frame of a collaboration, is intended for disaster conditions monitoring and for the support in rescue operations.