Big Data-Driven Disaster Management: A Key Approach for Smart Humanitarian Activity

Disaster management has become a universal challenge and a top priority for practically every country across the world. Humanitarian activity is a critical strategy for disaster management and development that can leverage big data to improve human and system capacity by linking information, disaster response, and help. Researchers, academics, and legislators are debating the utility of big data analytics (BDA) for disaster management. This study intends to explore the potential of BDA for disaster management by broadening the influence of humanitarian aid. To substantiate the contentions, a qualitative technique based on PRISMA guided desk review was used. It argues that by leveraging big data analytics, humanitarian activity can shift in the makeup of the humanitarian workforce, challenging old power relations and assuring better, faster, and stronger services. Big data has the possibility of providing vast amounts of information to aid in the development of humanitarian skills, allowing a social system to better prepare for disasters. It also emphasizes key aspects of BDA for disaster management, such as open-source tools, solid infrastructure, building local skills, authentic data sources, ethical data sharing, awareness about data rights, and learning from experience. BDA can be used by policymakers, administrators, and other stakeholders for taking effective initiatives during and after disasters, such as early warning systems, weather forecasting, urgent evacuation, instant humanitarian responses, relief delivery, training need assessment, and increasing the number of trained individuals.