Building Community Resilience in Support of Public Health Emergency Preparedness with Big Data and AI

Disasters, whether man-made or natural, are increasing in frequency and causing damage to the environment and injuring and killing significant numbers of people resulting in billions of dollars in economic losses. Physical, behavioral, social, and environmental well-being is the cornerstone of a community's resilience, because the ultimate outcome to any threat lies with the health and well-being of its citizens. The ability to utilize those assets, as it strengthens, enables the community to withstand, adapt, and recover from disasters. Big Data can be a significant resource upon which decisions and preparations can be made to facilitate communities preparing for disasters. Big Data and artificial intelligence can be used to analyze previous disasters, examine lessons learned, and evaluate other data resources, such as remote sensors, to provide a foundation for predicting future events, resulting in more effective planning and cost-effective disaster response. This article examines the role of Big Data and artificial intelligence in building community resilience, so communities have the ability/capacity to adapt and recover effectively from disasters.