Leveraging Big Data for Emergencies and Crises - Case Study Gaza Strip

— Emergencies all over the world have been increasing over the past years due to manmade and natural disasters. Consequently, it has been a challenge to analyze the huge data collected during emergencies and then process these data to formulate a rapid response, especially if in critical times when saving lives is the top priority. With the continuously emerging technologies specifically those that facilitate the process of data collection, processing and analysis, the stockholder’s response ability to the affected population will further increase. Using big data tools such as Hadoop or NoSQL if applicable in Gaza context could be leveraged to analyze the large amounts of data produced during emergencies and crises to contribute to changing the situation and providing a proper response for the affected population. Data collection during emergencies has been a main challenge as it’s the first stage in the information management lifecycle. Other challenges include how to process the large amounts of data and analyze them to provide the stockholders responding to the emergencies with accurate information and the ability to respond on a timely and professional manner. In this paper, the researchers examined the importance of having clear platforms and tools to be used in case of emergencies regardless their different types in Gaza context and what are the available tools to be used to enhance the response for the affected population.