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Local-international Collaboration Following the 2021 Haiti Earthquake for Rapid Building Damage Data Collection and Public Awareness Messaging

Collaborations between local teams in Haiti and international researchers working remotely led to an efficient hybrid model for rapid data collection that provided open building damage data to the humanitarian community, as well as widely disseminated safety messages about aftershocks. These efforts demonstrate the effectiveness of local-international collaborative models in challenging post-earthquake operational contexts. This project leveraged a hybrid response model in which Haitian data collectors use a mobile app to acquire images and basic data on local buildings. Records are synchronized to the cloud where international volunteer virtual assessors later assign a damage rating and classify the structural system. The model was ultimately deployed across the Sud, Nippes and Grand’Anse departments by University of Notre Dame and nonprofit organization GeoHazards International (GHI) with funding from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and included the addition of a Haitian Creole version of the USGS Did You Feel It? survey in a mobile app to obtain data for future development of macroseismic intensities. This effort produced 12,699 building records and 2,163 Did You Feel It? surveys within 10 weeks of the earthquake. The dataset and technical resources were made freely available to the humanitarian community and can be viewed at https://www.steer.network/haiti-response.

USGS and GHI collaborated to develop Haitian Creole and English messaging about aftershocks, including guidance on staying safe. Messaging was developed using wording from the domestic USGS aftershock forecast template combined with protective action messages developed by GHI in a prior project. Messages received several rounds of informal reviews, with two Haitian translators ensuring correct use of Haitian Creole and message efficacy, among others. These messages were disseminated in both languages on USGS’s main website page, the earthquake event website and Twitter feed and by GHI staff members in Haiti through local awareness campaigns.

Session: Modeling, Collecting and Communicating Post-earthquake Hazard and Impact Information

Type: Oral

Room: Regency A-C

Date: 4/20/2022

Presentation Time: 04:45 PM Pacific

Presenting Author: Heidi Stenner

Student Presenter: No

Additional Authors