Student researcher

Dr Billy Haworth Research Leader

Billy Haworth completed his CRC PhD with the University of Sydney in 2016, which looked at volunteered geographic information, community engagement and bushfire preparation. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of Billy’s thesis see https://billyhaworth.com/publications/. Natural disaster events remind us of the importance of geographic information in all aspects of disaster management.  A new stream of online user-generated geospatial data termed volunteered geographic information (VGI) presents new opportunities for the creation and dissemination of disaster-related geographic data from a dense network of intelligent observers.  Authorities and individuals are already embracing VGI technologies, creating a new landscape of geo-data production and knowledge sharing for crisis events. VGI technologies enable rapid sharing of diverse geographic information for disaster management at a fraction of the resource costs associated with traditional data collection and dissemination, but they also present a number of important challenges.  These include a lack of data quality assurance and issues of data management, privacy and security.  There is an urgent need for researchers to explore and comprehend the implications of these data and data practices for disaster management. Billy is now a researcher and lecturer in geography and disaster management at the University of Manchester.

Year Type Citation
2018 Journal Article Haworth, B., Whittaker, J., Read, R. & Bruce, E. The Good, the bad, and the uncertain: contributions of volunteered geographic information to community disaster resilience. Frontiers in Earth Science (2018). doi:10.3389/feart.2018.00183
2017 Journal Article Haworth, B. Implications of Volunteered Geographic Information for Disaster Management and GIScience: A More Complex World of Volunteered Geography. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 1-15 (2017). doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2017.1321979
2016 Conference Paper Rumsewicz, M. Research proceedings from the 2016 Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC conference. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC & AFAC annual conference 2016 (Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, 2016).
2016 Conference Paper Haworth, B., Whittaker, J. & Bruce, E. Using participatory mapping to harness local knowledge and increase community connectedness in bushfire preparation. AFAC16 (Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, 2016).
2016 Journal Article Haworth, B., Whittaker, J. & Bruce, E. Assessing the application and value of participatory mapping for community bushfire preparation. Applied Geography 76, (2016).
2016 Journal Article Haworth, B. Emergency management perspectives on volunteered geographic information: Opportunities, challenges and change. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 57, (2016).
2016 Thesis Haworth, B. Assessing the potential, application, and implications of volunteered geographic information in disaster risk reduction. Faculty of Science, School of Geosciences Doctor of Philosophy, 205 (2016).
2015 Journal Article Haworth, B., Bruce, E. & Middleton, P. Emerging technologies for risk reduction: assessing the potential use of social media and VGI for increasing community engagement. Australian Journal of Emergency Management 30, (2015).
2015 Journal Article Haworth, B. & Bruce, E. A Review of Volunteered Geographic Information for Disaster Management. Geography Compass 9, (2015).
Non-traditional volunteering: Volunteered geographic information (VGI) and bushfire preparation
25 Aug 2014
This research explores the potential role of VGI for fostering community engagement in bushfire preparation...
Power to the People: Implications of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) for Official Emergency Management (OEM)
18 Aug 2015
VGI refers to the creation and sharing of geographic information by community members, mainly through social...
Billy Haworth Conference Poster 2016
12 Aug 2016
Involving communities is a prerequisite to sustainable disaster risk reduction.
Contributions of digital volunteering to community resilience
30 Jun 2017
Adoption of location-based information sharing technologies and the emergence of digital volunteering has...