Distress – An Application for Emergency Response and Disaster Management

The frequency of disasters is increasing unprecedently over the years but there is always a lack of an efficient disaster management system to help people in the times of crisis. Hence, there is a need for coordinating the rescue and relief activities among the public and trained professionals. Reduction of response time remains imperative in such situations and can be achieved through better information management. Since the use of smartphones is gaining immense popularity with a proposed solution for disaster management, which could be a smart phone application. In this paper, existing proposed solutions for disaster management are reviewed. Next, a prototype is proposed for disaster management by considering the advantages and limitations of the reviewed systems along with the success factors for disaster management. Further, it is concluded by providing future research directions including the integration of application with government authorities, hospitals and other rescue teams.