# Utilization of ICT as a Digital Infrastructure Concerning Disaster Countermeasures in Japan
## 8 Conclusions  
The present study focused on social media and GIS of ICT as a digital infrastructure, which play important roles in disaster countermeasures. The present study also introduced development cases of the system developed integrating these, and presented the utilization potential as a digital infrastructure. Additionally, Twitter, which is the most-used social media platform for disaster countermeasures in Japan, was focused on, and its utilization cases during the heavy-rain disaster in Western Japan in 2018 were considered as well as the utilization potential of Twitter as a familiar digital infrastructure in disaster countermeasures was indicated.  
As mentioned in Section 3.1, as the reality and virtual spaces are closely related and integrated in super-smart societies such as Japan, everyday events in either space influences the other space. Therefore, if a disaster in reality occurs, the transmission and reception of disaster-related information in the virtual space using various information communication methods such as mass media and social media start almost simultaneously. As explained in Section 7.2, while this can lead to real activities such as evacuation, relief and support, it can also cause problems such as confusion due to information overload. Therefore, the issue is how to make the information circulating in the virtual space and especially on social media efficiently and effectively aid in the rescue and support activities in the reality space.  
In order to solve such an issue, as mentioned in Section 7.3, it is necessary to not only set rules for the utilization of social media but also to sift through information and share only the necessary information to the affected local governments and those involved in the rescue and support activities. In doing this, if the social media GIS for disaster information system and the function of social media mapping of the spatiotemporal information system which were introduced in Sections 5 and 6 are utilized, the essential information can be efficiently consolidated on the digital map of Web-GIS. Additionally, while Section 7 indicated the utilization potential of Twitter alone during disasters, the same utilization potential of other social media platforms based on their characteristics should be considered.  
Furthermore, various information communication methods including verbal calls in addition to ICT are necessary in order to prevent people who are vulnerable to disasters from becoming people who are also vulnerable to information. Though prompt evacuation may not be realized, due to the normalcy bias where an individual has the \"I'm okay\" mentality during disasters, finding a way to effectively use ICT to encourage individuals to evacuate is an issue. It is necessary for individuals who are not used to using ICT to familiarize themselves with utilizing it in their daily life.  
Regarding future research projects, increasing the utilization performance of the systems as introduced in Sections 5 and 6 as well as investigating the utilization potential of various social media platforms using the same methods adopted in Section 7 can be raised.  
This research received no external funding.  
The author declares no conflict of interest.