Urban resilience from the lens of social media data: Responses to urban flooding in Nanjing, China

Abstract

Applying a novel approach based on the fusion of social media data, land use data and other information, this paper examines the spatio-temporal patterns of public responses towards urban flooding in Nanjing city during July 1–21, 2016. Spatially, “pockets” of high public concern towards urban flooding were found in areas with low altitude, high percentage of water bodies, and rapid urban construction in recent years. Temporally, public responses tend to peak during the rainstorm period, rather than prior to that. Within a day, behavioural and emotional changes in relation to the rainstorm were most discernable during the morning peak hours. Variations in the response among people of different backgrounds, and the impact of urban flooding on different domains of people's daily life have been revealed. Based on the knowledge gained from this study, policy measures are proposed to increase urban flooding resilience, covering both physical infrastructure and human elements.