Use of ICT for Disaster Relief Distribution Across Hostile Terrain
摘要
Disaster risk management (DRM) is emerging as one of the most significant areas of research and development across the social sector during the last decade. The prominence of this field has always been paramount for humans, but the rapid development in information and communication technologies (ICT) and its varied applications to the DRM have catapulted this area to the league of the front-runners. The basic premise of any DRM plan is the provision of rescue and essentials despite scarcity or even the absence of known means of conventional transportation and scarcity of communication resources/channels. It becomes very difficult for communities to come together in solidarity with the affected people due to a lack of coordination in adverse circumstances, and the ICT has been a savior to this cause, bringing rescue and relief teams closer to each other over technological advancements. The relief distribution applications being discussed in this study are contextually relevant to the underlying assumption that most people in the rescue and relief teams shall be equipped with a basic smartphone running Android, and there is a provision for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), popularly known as drones, capable of delivering small loads over short distances.