New Publication "Emergency Management: Designing Mobile Applications to Support Citizens During Storm Floods" at DESRIST 2025

24 June 2025, by Marten Borchers

Photo: UHH

We are pleased to share our new publication, titled "Emergency Management: Designing Mobile Applications to Support Citizens During Storm Floods," recently presented at the 20th International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology (DESRIST) by Enrico Milutzki.

 In the paper, Enrico Milutzki, Alexander Bode, Valeria Magdych, Eva Bittner, and I, from the University of Hamburg, and Martin Semmann, from the Hub of Computing and Data Science, examine the research question: "How should mobile apps be designed to better protect and guide citizens during storm floods?" We address the issue of climate change's impact, which leads to increased storm flood frequencies and high tides, posing significant dangers, especially in urban areas and cities, as examined in the RESCUE-MATE project, within which we developed this work. For the examination, following a design science research approach, we reviewed current solutions and conducted interviews with citizens and experts. Based on these, we formulated twelve meta-requirements and four design principles and developed a mobile prototype to evaluate these.

Our results highlight:

• Location-based information should be provided in real-time, including interactive maps, rather than just generic warnings.
• Personalized evacuation routes that adapt to current hazards, individual needs, and available mobility options
• Two-way communication enables citizens to report obstacles or urgent needs, boosting situational awareness for both citizens and emergency-relevant actors.
• Integrated emergency aid features, such as a panic button, first aid guidance, and additional guidelines, can also be explored before a flood to increase awareness and preparedness among citizens.

We look forward to the further implementation and extension of our mobile application, as well as the real-world testing that is part of the RESCUE-MATE project.

Paper: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-93979-2_17
DESRIST Conferenz: https://desrist2025.org/
RESCUE-MATE Project: https://www.rescue-mate.de/