CrisisConnect: A Web-Based Platform for Real-Time Disaster Management and Community Coordination

CrisisConnect: A Web-Based Platform for Real-Time Disaster Management and Community Coordination | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article CrisisConnect: A Web-Based Platform for Real-Time Disaster Management and Community Coordination Vikash Kumar This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9589505/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Natural disasters inflict catastrophic harm on communities worldwide, and the absence of a unified, real-time digital infrastructure consistently amplifies their impact by delaying emergency response. Existing disaster management platforms are either fragmented across multiple channels or lack the backend reliability needed to serve thousands of concurrent users during peak crisis periods. This paper presents the backend architecture of CrisisConnect, a web-based disaster management platform designed to bridge communication gaps between citizens, volunteers, and relief authorities during emergencies. The backend is built using the MERN stack — specifically Node.js and Express.js for the server layer and MongoDB for persistent data storage — and integrates Socket.IO for real-time bidirectional communication. A robust RESTful API exposes endpoints for user authentication (with JWT, bcrypt password hashing, and OTP-based verification via Nodemailer), incident reporting with GeoJSON-based geospatial indexing, volunteer coordination, and user profile management. Rate limiting middleware is applied at the route level to enforce fair usage and protect against abuse. The proposed system demonstrates meaningful improvements in API response efficiency and request handling capacity compared to conventional REST-only approaches. Geospatial indexing reduces location-based query latency by approximately 62 Computer Architecture and Engineering Disaster Management RESTful API Node.js Express.js MongoDB Socket.IO JWT Authentication GeoJ- SON Real-Time Systems MERN Stack Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Existing disaster management platforms are either fragmented across multiple channels or lack the backend reliability needed to serve thousands of concurrent users during peak crisis periods. This paper presents the backend architecture of CrisisConnect, a web-based disaster management platform designed to bridge communication gaps between citizens, volunteers, and relief authorities during emergencies. The backend is built using the MERN stack \u0026mdash; specifically Node.js and Express.js for the server layer and MongoDB for persistent data storage \u0026mdash; and integrates Socket.IO for real-time bidirectional communication. A robust RESTful API exposes endpoints for user authentication (with JWT, bcrypt password hashing, and OTP-based verification via Nodemailer), incident reporting with GeoJSON-based geospatial indexing, volunteer coordination, and user profile management. Rate limiting middleware is applied at the route level to enforce fair usage and protect against abuse. 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