The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has stepped up its monitoring of Twitter for early reports of earthquakes, fires, cyclones and floods.

Its Emergency Situation Awareness software has already detected 22 quakes in Australia and New Zealand this year, according to Digital, Productivity and Services Team Leader Mark Cameron.

When key words are detected on the social media website the system automatically alerts agencies such as the tsunami warning centre at Geoscience Australia and state emergency services.

“You do need a human at the agency level to check the automated report,” Dr Cameron told insuranceNEWS.com.au. Once this is done, the public can be notified.

The software has been in use since 2010, mainly to detect earthquakes, but has now been extended to look for Twitter reports of fires and other disasters.

US and Australian research shows “people are highly likely to use social media in a crisis or emergency and they expect emergency services to be listening at these times to respond to their cries for help”.

A prototype of CSIRO’s Twitter filter monitored the Grantham-Toowoomba flash floods in January 2011, and after further development NSW fire authorities used it during bushfires last October.

Dr Cameron says he is interested in discussing the tool with insurers, initially about how they could use it to notify policyholders of slower-moving disasters such as floods.

CSIRO is also looking to extend its use to scientific and emergency services partners in southeast Asia, where the use of Twitter and social media is high and disasters are frequent.

Asked about the feedback so far from emergency services, Dr Cameron says there are “lots of challenges” but the tool is constantly being refined.