A Study of IoT-based Post-Disaster Management

In recent decades, serious natural or man-made disasters such as earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and 9/11 have occurred with catastrophic consequences. To minimize the damage or loss of lives in the aftermath of a disaster, it is important that rescuers are able to track the trapped victims and perform coordinated relief efforts immediately. The traditional telecommunication system (e.g. a landline or cellular network) may be either partially or entirely damaged by a disaster incident. Internet of Things (IoT) is a promising technology that can be used to solve some of the problems mentioned above. To date, the application of IoT in post-disaster management is still an unexplored problem. The objective of this paper is to study the IoT-based proposals for post-disaster management framework. It discusses the key enabling technologies for IoT and provides an insight into IoT-based post-disaster response and recovery. A new algorithm (flowchart) for an ad hoc network formation linked to device-to-device communications towards a robust post-disaster management framework is presented.