Emergency Response and Post-Disaster Recovery Using Smartphone-Based Applications

The number of natural disasters, such as tsunamis, earthquakes, flooding, cyclone, and bushfires, is rapidly increasing globally, and they are claiming thousands of lives while destroying numerous properties. One of the major concerns of these natural disasters is the destruction of communication links, such as powerline and Internet connections, which make it difficult to enable communication among the affected people and the rescue teams. However, the evolution of smart devices equipped with multiple short-range communication technologies, such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi provides an opportunity to form an ad-hoc network with co-located smart mobile device users and communicate their positions and other relevant information to the rescue workers. This chapter provides a detailed description of recent advancements in this area and highlights important aspects that are needed to be considered for practical implementation.