title: The Crisis Map of the Czech Republic: the nationwide deployment of an Ushahidi application for disasters.
abstract: Crisis mapping is a legitimate component of both crisis informatics and disaster risk management. It has become an effective tool for humanitarian workers, especially after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. Ushahidi is among the many mapping platforms on offer in the growing field of crisis mapping, and involves the application of crowdsourcing to create online and interactive maps of areas in turmoil. This paper presents the Crisis Map of the Czech Republic, which is the first such instrument to be deployed nationwide in Central Europe. It describes the methodologies used in the preparatory work phase and details some practices identified during the creation and actual employment of the map. In addition, the paper assesses its structure and technological architecture, as well as its potential possible development in the future. Lastly, it evaluates the utilisation of the Crisis Map during the floods in the Czech Republic in 2013.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor in the Department of Development Studies, Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jiří
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pánek
authors.affiliation: Researcher in the Department of Geoinformatics, Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic.|Post-Doctoral Fellow Researcher in the Department of Geography, University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Lukáš
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marek
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor in the Department of Geoinformatics, Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic.|Assistant Professor in the Department of Informatics and Applied Mathematics, Moravian University College Olomouc, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Vít
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pászto
authors.affiliation: Director of the Standby Task Force, United States.
authors.forename: Jaroslav
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Valůch
mesh_terms: D018153:Czech Republic; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000379:methods*; D004190:Disasters; D055868:Floods; D006801:Humans
keywords: Czech Republic; Ushahidi; crisis map; crowdsourcing; disaster management; floods