Disasters are events that cause dramatic losses of life and property and disrupt the normal functioning of the economy and society on a large scale. Disaster management is multifaceted process for developing strategies to reduce the impact of disasters and provide assistance to affected populations. Disaster management involves information- and communication-intensive activities before, during and after disaster strikes. The revolutionary potential of ICTs lies in their ability to instantly and continuously facilitate rapid communication and flow of information, capital, ideas, people and products. Because of this potential, ICTs have made incredible leaps in their usefulness for many application areas and this makes everyone agrees to consider that they have the potential to revolutionize the disaster management area too.

The conference will include paper presentations describing original work on the current state of research and practices in technologies and systems for prevention, preparation, response and recovery of disasters. The themes include (but not limited to) emergency communication, collaboration and coordination, decision enhancement systems, security and privacy, geo-information and space technologies, multi-sensor data collection, information dissemination and early warning and standardization efforts.

There will also be invited presentations by experts from academia, industry, and government as well as special sessions dedicated to case studies, demonstrations and experiences based on pragmatic approaches. This way, the conference will provide a forum for supporting and encouraging both academic researchers, as well as practitioners involved in practice-focused research.

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