Citizen science in risk communication in the era of ICT

Risk communication is the exchange of information among stakeholders about an impending disaster and its risks to help individuals take appropriate actions to mitigate hazard impacts. While traditional risk communication follows a command and control structure such that information from hierarchical and vertically integrated organizations is disseminated to broader community, social media uses a decentralized, collaborative, and network based communication approach. The growth of information and communication technologies has made social media a popular channel for disseminating alert and warning messages both by citizens and agencies. However, social media suffers from spreading rumors and hoaxes. To minimize rumors and increase citizen communication, a science gateway (Cyber-Infrastructure for GeoInformatics and Community Resilience) has been deployed. This gateway, resulted from a research conducted along the Mississippi Gulf Coast communities, incorporates citizen science to evaluate warning message sources, message contents and dissemination channels to increase public response to warnings. This gateway built on the social construct of risk communication provides opportunities to citizens to share data and information about a hazard, and participate in building community resilience. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.