• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

UT professor develops algorithm to improve online mapping of disaster areas

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
November 28, 2016
in Science News
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram
IMAGE

Credit: Yingjie Hu

KNOXVILLE–When an 8-magnitude earthquake struck Yingjie Hu's home province of Sichuan, China, in 2008, he was more than 1,000 miles away attending college in Shanghai. While Hu wanted to help, there wasn't much he could do due to the long distance.

This situation has been changed in recent years. Thanks to humanitarian organizations, such as the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, web-based mapping platforms have been developed that enable volunteers to participate in remote disaster response.

Hu, now an assistant professor of geography at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and his colleagues have found a way to make the process more effective by developing an algorithm that indicates which areas need detailed mapping first. With better maps of the disaster zone, response teams can respond more efficiently to the most urgent needs.

Their paper was recently published in the journal Geographical Analysis.

In a typical web-based mapping project, volunteers review the most current remote sensing images, fill in the geographic data gaps and update the maps by, for example, indicating which roads are blocked after the disaster. Since there can be hundreds of volunteers working together, humanitarian organizations often divide the disaster-affected area into a number of grid cells. A volunteer can then choose one cell to start the mapping task.

Without any guidance on the mapping priorities, volunteers may map the grid cells in a random order.

Hu and his colleagues–Krzysztof Janowicz and Helen Couclelis, both of the University of California, Santa Barbara–developed an algorithm for prioritizing the mapping tasks. Their method takes into account the area's population, disaster severity and the road network and simulates potential rescue routes. The priorities of the grid cells are then ranked based on how the information within each cell can potentially assist the route-planning decisions of response teams. The result of the algorithm can help inform online volunteers about the priorities of the grid cells through color codes.

"Different grid cells contain different geographic content," Hu said. "If online volunteers can first map the grid cells that are more urgent, response teams may be able to use the information at an earlier stage."

He added that web mapping platforms are very valuable because they allow people to participate in disaster response even if they are far away from the disaster-affected area.

"Online volunteers provide up-to-date geographic information that can help disaster response teams on the ground to make more informed decisions," he said.

Right now, Hu's algorithm only focuses on road networks.

"Within one grid, there can be other types of geographic information like hospital capacity or shelters," Hu said. "Eventually, we could also quantify the value of these other types of geographic information and aggregate them to provide a more comprehensive rank of the grids."

As a next step, Hu hopes to partner with humanitarian organizations to further test the algorithm in a real disaster.

###

Media Contact

Lola Alapo
[email protected]
865-974-3993
@UTKnoxville

UT System

############

Story Source: Materials provided by Scienmag

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Enhancing Capacitive Performance of Eu-Doped NiCo2O4 Nanoflowers

October 28, 2025
Engineers Develop Innovative Hydrogels to Track Bodily Activity

Engineers Develop Innovative Hydrogels to Track Bodily Activity

October 28, 2025

NIH Grant Fuels George Mason Researcher’s Advances in AI Storytelling for Dementia Care

October 28, 2025

Scientists Identify Genetic Factors Behind Accelerated Craniofacial Growth in Marsupials

October 28, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Sperm MicroRNAs: Crucial Mediators of Paternal Exercise Capacity Transmission

    1288 shares
    Share 514 Tweet 322
  • Stinkbug Leg Organ Hosts Symbiotic Fungi That Protect Eggs from Parasitic Wasps

    311 shares
    Share 124 Tweet 78
  • ESMO 2025: mRNA COVID Vaccines Enhance Efficacy of Cancer Immunotherapy

    198 shares
    Share 79 Tweet 50
  • New Study Suggests ALS and MS May Stem from Common Environmental Factor

    135 shares
    Share 54 Tweet 34

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Enhancing Capacitive Performance of Eu-Doped NiCo2O4 Nanoflowers

Engineers Develop Innovative Hydrogels to Track Bodily Activity

NIH Grant Fuels George Mason Researcher’s Advances in AI Storytelling for Dementia Care

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 67 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.