Quantifying the Digital Traces of Hurricane Sandy on Flickr

Sci. Rep. 3, 3141 (2013).

3 Pages Posted: 7 Jan 2014

See all articles by Tobias Preis

Tobias Preis

Data Science Lab, Behavioural Science, Warwick Business School; The Alan Turing Institute

Helen Susannah Moat

Data Science Lab, Behavioural Science, Warwick Business School; The Alan Turing Institute

Steven Bishop

University College London

Philip Treleaven

University College London

H. Eugene Stanley

Boston University - Center for Polymer Studies

Date Written: November 5, 2013

Abstract

Society’s increasing interactions with technology are creating extensive "digital traces" of our collective human behavior. These new data sources are fueling the rapid development of the new field of computational social science. To investigate user attention to the Hurricane Sandy disaster in 2012, we analyze data from Flickr, a popular website for sharing personal photographs. In this case study, we find that the number of photos taken and subsequently uploaded to Flickr with titles, descriptions or tags related to Hurricane Sandy bears a striking correlation to the atmospheric pressure in the US state New Jersey during this period. Appropriate leverage of such information could be useful to policy makers and others charged with emergency crisis management.

Keywords: Big Data, Disaster, Nowcasting, Data Mining, Flickr, Computational Social Science, Digital Traces

JEL Classification: A10, B40, C10, C20, C22, C53, C90, D70, D79, D83, J10, J11, O40, O47

Suggested Citation

Preis, Tobias and Moat, Helen Susannah and Bishop, Steven and Treleaven, Philip and Stanley, H. Eugene, Quantifying the Digital Traces of Hurricane Sandy on Flickr (November 5, 2013). Sci. Rep. 3, 3141 (2013)., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2375565

Tobias Preis (Contact Author)

Data Science Lab, Behavioural Science, Warwick Business School ( email )

University of Warwick
Coventry, CV4 7AL
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.tobiaspreis.com

The Alan Turing Institute ( email )

British Library, 96 Euston Road
96 Euston Road
London, NW12DB
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.turing.ac.uk/people/researchers/tobias-preis

Helen Susannah Moat

Data Science Lab, Behavioural Science, Warwick Business School ( email )

University of Warwick
Coventry, CV4 7AL
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.wbs.ac.uk/about/person/suzy-moat/

The Alan Turing Institute ( email )

British Library 96 Euston Road
96 Euston Road
London, NW12DB
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.turing.ac.uk/people/researchers/suzy-moat

Steven Bishop

University College London ( email )

Gower Street
London, WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom

Philip Treleaven

University College London ( email )

Gower Street
London, WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom

H. Eugene Stanley

Boston University - Center for Polymer Studies ( email )

Boston, MA 02215
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
81
Abstract Views
1,033
Rank
547,134
PlumX Metrics