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Smartphone for earthquake field reconnaissance:

EDAM Earthquakes Damage Assessments Manager

Emergency management and building loss assessment are the next steps after the first emergency response to recover from extreme events like an earthquake that threatens life, property, operations, or the environment. Emergency responders now have access to many different social media tools such as smart phones, high-speed internet, and “cloud” computing, to name only a few examples that have the potential to improve the way they do their jobs, allowing for near-instantaneous exchanges of information. Social media can help people in different communities and locations collaborate in new ways. While social media tools offer the potential for improving emergency management, public organizations such as emergency authorities may not fully understand how these tools can help them. Since the use of smartphones is becoming more and more spread among the population, its utilization within the field reconnaissance has been proposed with an app called EDAM Earthquakes Damage Assessments Manager. The application can be run by residents on smartphones and has been recently tested during 2014 Napa Valley Earthquake in California and 2015 Nepal Earthquake. EDAM gives an initial damage evaluation of the area, which is going to be very useful when the number of inspectors is limited. The application is freely available both in the Apple store for iOS users and in the Google store for the Android users. A web version is also available here.