Authors: Maximilian Walther, Sven Schaust, Michael Kaisser AGT International

1. Social Media-based Event Detection for Crisis
Management in the Za’atari Refugee Camp
Maximilian Walther, Sven Schaust, Michael Kaisser
ISCRAM, Baden-Baden, 14.05.2013

2. 2
Scenario: Za’atari Refugee Camp in Jordan
• General Information (December 2012)
• Camp for Syrian refugees escaping from Assad regime
• Located 15 kilometers south of the Syrian border
• Size of 220 hectares with 5,000 shelters and 500
infrastructure/support buildings
• About 80,000 Syrians (numbers vary based on political intention)
On-site Relief Organizations
• Governmental
• French Foreign Legion, Moroccan Military, THW (Disaster Preparedness,
Germany), USAID (Development Agency, USA), …
• Non-governmental
• ACTED (Development Charity, FR), MercyCorps (Humanitarian Aid, USA),
Norwegian Red Cross, Oxfam (Development Charity, UK), Save the
Children (Development Charity, UK), UNHCR (Refugees Group, UN),
UNICEF (Child-related, Int.), …

3. 3
Infrastructure
Buildings
Refugee Tents
built before Sep
3 2012
Refugee Tents
built before Nov
15 2012

4. 4
Twitter-based Za’atari Analysis
• Setup
• Time periods: October 2012, February and March 2013
• Filtering of incoming tweet stream
• Location-based: only tagged tweets within 200km radius of camp
• Keyword-based: Za‟atari, , Syrian refugees, …
• Machine-based translation to English
• Clustering by similar content (ngrams on char/word base, URLs, etc.)
Statistics
• ~50,000 tweets/day in monitored region
• Reduction to ~20 relevant tweets/day by…
• Removal of non-camp-related tweets
• Deduplication (retweets, double postings, etc.)
• Few tweets directly posted from camp (but based on personal visit)
• Languages: Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Italian, …

5. 5
Subjects of debate in Za‘atari
• „Hot Topics“
• Riots
• Refugee numbers
• Campaigns for public help
• Infrastructure
• Diseases
• Security situation
• On-site recordings
• Other Topics
• Camp closing campaigns
• Dealing (drugs, tents, etc.)
• Education
• On-site institutions
• Religion/Proselytization
• Renegades
• Water problems
• Weather conditions

6. 6
Distribution of Za‘atari Tweets (here: r = 350km)

7. 7
Refugee Numbers
• Massive Increase through Newcomers and Births
• Feb 14 2013 22:38:46: „More than 110,000 Syrian
refugees in camp Zaatari in Jordan: http://t.co/fTNIIzPD
#Syria“ (on Arabic)
• Feb 19 2013 16:56:00: „2,000 births every three months
in Zaatari http://t.co/r9BrtzSx“ (on Arabic)
• Mar 02 2013 21:21:26: „Visiting Zaatari camp in
Northern Jordan where 120,000 refugees are living, 5,000
newcomers ariving every day http://t.co/zTzhTTyyIN“ (on
Arabic)
• Mar 03 2013 17:33:52: „148,000 Syrians in Zaatari
http://t.co/WxzDLyVDFR“ (on Arabic)
• Mar 13 2013 07:59:34: „Every day, 8 babies are born in
#Zaatari. See how we take care of young mothers
http://t.co/zKPr28WRqy #UNICEF“ (on Arabic)

8. 8
Diseases
• Hepatitis, Anemia, Aids
• Feb 14 2013 14:08:00: „Syrian child in camp Zaatari,
Jordan, infected with hepatitis, need fast help in a
hospital... http://t.co/x12K1q8O“ (on Arabic)
• Feb 14 2013 23:15:44: „60 women in Zaatari suffer from
anemia http://t.co/VI78m55v“ (on Arabic)
• Feb 21 2013 08:25:32: „At copy date: 4 cases of AIDS in
Zaatari - News Everywhere http://t.co/u8ABbK8QQq“ (on
Arabic)

9. 9
Security Situation
• Criminals and Criminal Organizations in the Camp
• Feb 13 2013 15:53:11: „Gang of 21 Syrian refugees
going by the name of „Intimidation and Terror“ arrested
http://t.co/a3XcRTGv ...“ (on Arabic)
• Mar 08 2013 11:36:04: „Kidnapping of employees in
Zaatari, here is what happened … http://t.co/JCQNYaP9hx“
(on Arabic)
• Mar 11 2013 12:49:52: „Zaatari: Arrest
of refugee and his wife possessing half a
kilo of heroin! http://t.co/o1bFuTXs8X“
(on Arabic)

10. 10
Details for Fire on Mar 08 2013 (1)
• 1. Fire breaks out
• Mar 08 2013 11:06:03: „Jordan – Large-scale fire in Zaatari
Camp... http://t.co/Si1fECeUB9“ (on Arabic)
• Mar 08 2013 11:06:48: „URGENT: Zaatari is burning...! Details
in the following link: http://t.co/6oOyADTruE“ (on Arabic)
• 2. Identification of Riots
• Mar 08 2013 11:06:50: „Major riots in Zaatari camp and attacks
to security forces and journalists“ (on Arabic)
• Mar 08 2013 11:24:37: „Chaos and a huge fire in Zaatari
http://t.co/c2snjF5wqa“ (on Arabic)

11. 11
Details for Fire on Mar 08 2013 (2)
• 3. Intervention of Rescue Teams
• Mar 08 2013 11:44:15: „Civil Defense extinguishes the fire in
some tents in camp Zaatari“ (on Arabic)
• Mar 08 2013 11:48:49: „Fire fighters intervene in camp
#Zaatari and succeed in controlling the fire and prevent it from
reaching out to the remaining tents or killing camp habitants“ (on
Arabic)
• 4. Follow-up Analysis
• Mar 09 2013 16:55:50: „After the fire which destroyed 100
tents in #Zaatari, ACTED, UNICEF, and THW removed the coaled
debris http://t.co/z1B2LGSawl“ (on Arabic)
• Mar 11 2013 11:27:13: „One dead, two children injured in
Zaatari fire http://t.co/NErEZw2AUY“ (on Arabic)

12. 12
Video posted about Fire on Mar 08 2013

13. 13
Conclusions
• Potential and Limitations of Social Media Analysis in Zaatari
• Continuous information flow, links to further reading
• Assessment of „general mood“ in the camp
• Detection of events including riots, diseases, water problems, etc.
• Less tweets due to bad infrastructure and missing real-time value
• Judgement by THW experts
• Value for Head of Mission in Amman
• Better assessment of camp state (e.g., 1-pager for weekly meeting)
• Efficient communication with agencies about certain announcements
• Value for employees in general
• Fast development of expert knowledge
• Understanding of how Jordan treats the whole situation
• Value for THW Headquarters in Bonn
• Automatize creation of daily press analysis
The feedback we got from Mr. Eger (THW)
was that Social Media analysis could provide
them with the answer to the big question
„What are people concerned about in
Za„atari and Jordan?“ which can give them
directions on how to drive their mission.
…and what do you think about it?

14. 14
Thanks for Your Attention!
mwalther@agtinternational.com

15. 15
Relevance of Social Media in Disaster Zones
• Founded in March 2006, allows for 140 chars/message
• roughly 5-10% of all tweets with GPS coordinates
• Around 5,800 tweets/second (November 2012)
• 500 million tweets/day (~75GB/day)
• Relevance of Twitter for emergency situations (e.g., Sandy)
• „Following #Sandy On Twitter
Could Save Your Life” Source
• Live sharing of what is happening
in front of peoples„ doors
• After Sandy„s first day in NYC:
233,000 Sandy photos on Twitter
• „Taxis underwater- Hoboken
#Sandy pic.twitter.com/gZRmFihx”

16. 16
Information Exploitation
• Assessment of „General Mood“
• Analysis of content in relation to positive or negative sentiments
concerning events, topics, etc.
• Early Detection of Arising Crisis Situations
• Trivial: long queues, traffic problems, …
• Severe: mass panics, attacks, floods, fires, …
• Alternative Communication
Channel
• E.g., Loveparade
• Broken communication
channel of police
• Visitors still able to share
content over Social Media
platforms

17. 17
Live Documentation of Camp Visit
• National Center for Human Rights (Jordan)
• Feb 14 2013 12:34:38: „An entry of Zaatari while we„re arriving.
http://t.co/dQALcTfT“ (on Arabic)
• Feb 14 2013 12:48:03: „Hamad Ruwaili and Biskaka Hohle Saad
Al Shammari, director of the soup kitchenafter we arrived in camp
Zaatari. http://t.co/60ww1cqF“ (on Arabic)
• Feb 14 2013 12:55:26: „In front of the vehicle of a charity
organization in Camp Zaatari. http://t.co/9rg2NaiR“ (on Arabic)
• Feb 14 2013 12:56:21: „Distribution of food baskets in Camp
Zaatari. http://t.co/V8tdQVnC“(on Arabic)

18. 18
Riots in Camp Za’atari
• Small Riots
• Feb 13 2013 16:40:47: „Street pulse: New riots in
Zaatari“ (on Arabic)
• Feb 16 2013 19:16:33: „Riots in Zaatari caused by
missing gas bottles http://t.co/QOYztrfO
http://t.co/IXb2ltqX“ (on Arabic)
• Feb 18 2013 09:09:47: „Protests in Zaatari against
power blackouts and security situation;
http://t.co/w97dHuK5 http://t.co/IGszbTq9“ (on Arabic)
• Big Riots with Camp Fires
• Feb 18 2013: Fire in the camp
• Death of a 7-year old
• Subsequent riots
• Mar 08 2013: Huge fire of more than 20 tents
• One person dead, several perople injured

19. 19
Details for Fire on Feb 18 2013
• 1. First Details about Fire and Casualties (12 Tweets)
• Feb 18 2013 22:18:24: „Fire in camp Zaatari in one of the tents
kills 7-year-old boy... http://t.co/KBzYwDyo“ (on Arabic)
• 2. Riots are spreading (14 Tweets)
• Feb 19 2013 09:12:54: „http://t.co/jrTzQfVv Riots in Zaatari
after death of a child“ (on Arabic)
• 3. Further Details und Corrections (15 Tweets)
• Feb 19 2013 14:03:17: „Girl dies in fire in Zaatari: A girl died in
the age of 7, her father was injured and two of her brothers suffer
from medium-degree burns... http://t.co/bTR1yfMf“ (on Arabic)

20. 20
Miscellaneous
• Live-Stream to Friday Prayer in Camp
• Feb 15 2013 10:53:54: „Jordan – direct broadcast to
Friday Prayer in camp Zaatari http://t.co/ja4XuYdn“ (on
Arabic)
• Protestant Proselytization
• Mar 12 2013 09:14:42: „Complaints about missionary
activities in camp Zaatari! http://t.co/3z937riYb4“ (on
Arabic)
• Mar 12 2013 19:13:23: „Spreading evangelisation in
camp Zaatari http://t.co/ecLow79mgb“ (on Arabic)
• Flüchtlinge verkaufen Zelte für $100 (Wert $700)
• Mar 12 2013 08:25:51: „Resale of tents in Zaatari...
Prices at about $100 (Photo) #Jordan #Zaatari
http://t.co/OT1wY7iHNq“ (on Arabic)