The scientific evidence of the applications of social media to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction: current status, implications and way forward

Abstract Social media is vital for raising awareness necessary to manage disasters. Despite their importance, the available studies on this subject are fragmented and have missed recent developments essential to advancing the knowledge required to reduce the risks to lives and properties. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to provide scientific evidence on the application of social media to advance climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR), including the status, implications, and way forward. This work employed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology to comprehensively review publications that used social media-generated data and models to conceptualize and support CCA and DRR efforts. The results show that while social media applications advance CCA and DRR initiatives through community engagement, prevention/mitigation, information support, recovery, and coordination, vital aspects, such as building resilience and preparedness and response capacities for climatic and disaster events, are often neglected. Further findings show that social media has been crucial in advancing Sustainable Development Goal 13, Target 13.1 and 13.3, and the first and fourth priorities of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. To track mis/disinformation, the authors recommend that future studies examine the differences between details of social media users’ posts and verified events, and the associated implications. Further research should examine the diversity policy shift on X and Meta platforms and its impacts on CCA and DRR-related content. This paper proposes a social media-integrated CCA-DRR governance framework to guide future research and practice.