Here's how citizen scientists assisted with the disaster response in the Caribbean

The post-disaster environment poses immense challenges for crisis response teams tasked with assessing the extent of the damage as quickly as possible, often over thousands of square miles. These teams need a sound and reliable understanding of the situation on the ground, to quickly and safely provide the right help to the people affected. Citizen scientists from around the world can play a key role in delivering this information to emergency responders on the ground. In the wake of hurricanes Irma and Maria, which swept across the Caribbean during September 2017, an ongoing collaboration between the Zooniverse (an online citizen science platform), the University of Oxford, and NGO Rescue Global, has enlisted thousands of volunteers worldwide to analyse satellite-based information. The end result is a series of maps that highlight affected areas, providing a robust source of information which helps Rescue Global and the disaster relief community to generate more detailed mapping, and conduct needs assessments, aid deliveries and evacuations on the ground. When Rescue Global began their Hurricane Irma response operation in early September, the Planetary Response Network, a collaboration between the Zooniverse and Oxford University, was activated quickly and began sourcing satellite images of the disaster-affected areas from data providers Planet, Digital Globe, NASA and ESA.