IT:U researches AI for disaster response
As climate change drives more frequent and severe natural disasters, technology must keep pace. IT:U is advancing an AI-powered platform within the EU-funded TEMA project that fuses publicly available social media data with satellite imagery. The goal: deliver rapid, reliable digital situational awareness to emergency services during floods and other crises.
Social media as an early indicator
Within minutes of a severe rainfall event, affected residents share photos and videos of flooded streets on platforms like TikTok and others. The GeoSocial AI research group led by Bernd Resch is developing privacy-preserving methods to process and analyze these public posts using AI, turning them into early signals of where impacts are most severe. This early insight helps emergency teams save valuable time and reduce harm to people and infrastructure.
“Every minute counts in an emergency. With TEMA, our aim is to provide incident commanders with a dependable situational picture faster, so resources can be deployed more effectively. By combining satellite data with anonymized, AI-processed social media signals, we can cut the time from several hours to just minutes.”
Bernd Resch, Professor of GeoSocial AI
The approach has already proven itself during the 20th NATO emergency management exercise in Bulgaria in September 2025, where research institutions were actively involved for the first time. Four additional large-scale exercises are planned in 2026 to further strengthen disaster response capacity in Austria and across Europe through research and technology.
Entering the final year of a pan-European effort
IT:U’s work is part of the €11.3 million EU project TEMA , now entering its final year. With 19 partner organizations across Europe, TEMA has delivered key interim results on AI-driven analysis of social media data to identify disaster hotspots. The GeoSocial AI research group explores the intersection of geospatial analytics, social media, and AI to support the common good, particularly in disaster risk management. Through collaborative European projects like TEMA, the team translates cutting-edge research into actionable tools for emergency services.
Learn more: AI Evening at IT:U Digital City Studio
The Digital City Studio is a collaborative initiative between IT:U and the City of Linz. It represents a new way of thinking about public engagement, science communication, and the role of technology in society.
In a world shaped by digital transformation, technology must not only be developed but also understood and shaped by society. The Digital City Studio is a response to this challenge — a space where research meets the public, and digital futures are co-created by everyone.