A new collaborative research initiative from UCL School of Management and Tohoku University has launched to examine how humanitarian organisations develop, test and scale complex technological and strategic solutions in disaster situations.

The first issue of the Disaster Organisations, Technologies and Strategies (DOTS) research series, published on United Nations ReliefWeb, focuses on Japan, which experiences the highest number of earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons and volcanic eruptions in the world.

The researchers analysed Spectee Pro, an AI-powered platform used during Japan’s 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake to identify and coordinate humanitarian response faster than emergency systems. The platform has transformed how Japanese humanitarian organisations harness crowd-sourced intelligence during natural disasters and offers new insight into how AI technology and human expertise can work together in crisis. 

The company emerged after the communication failures during/after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, when social media proved to be a more reliable source than traditional channels for real-time damage assessment. 

When the Noto Peninsula earthquake hit in 2024, Japan’s deadliest earthquake since 2011, Spectee Pro offered a clear improvement on traditional emergency systems and processes while also raising new challenges in human-technology collaboration. 

During the earthquake, the AI platform processed thousands of social media posts in seconds, identifying collapsed buildings, fires and rescue requests faster than official channels. Its algorithms analysed real-time data from social media, while human teams confirmed critical incidents.

Shivaang Sharma, PhD candidate and DOTS initiative lead at the UCL School of Management said: “During my fieldwork in Japan, I witnessed first hand that addressing grand challenges requires weaving together diverse organizations, technologies and individuals – this insight sparked an idea to connect all the ‘DOTS’.”

The DOTS report offers broader lessons for people working on humanitarian crises. It calls for more adaptive, hybrid approaches to technology design, and for stronger collaboration between AI, policymakers and humanitarian organisations.

DOTS Research Report Issue #1 is available to read online