Crisis Events Digital Library
TR Number
Date
2025-05-06
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Jake Sundstrom
Abstract
Description
The Crisis Events Webpages Digital Library is a full-stack web application designed to centralize and streamline the way researchers, students, and the general public interact with data on crisis events throughout the United States. Rather than relying on fragmented news reports or disparate local sources, users can submit a URL along with structured metadata such as date, location, event type, casualty figures, economic impact estimates and a narrative description to create a comprehensive digital record of any wildfire, tornado, flood or other crisis. Built with React, React Router and Tailwind CSS on the front end and powered by a Spring Boot backend with MariaDB managed via Flyway and JWT-based security, the system supports secure, role-based access so that only authorized contributors may add, edit or remove records.
Once events are in the library, the application’s comparison feature allows two or more crises of the same type to be viewed side-by-side. Interactive tables and charts highlight differences in timing, duration, human and economic cost, and other key metrics, giving users an at a glance understanding of how one event stacks up against another. Underlying these capabilities is a commitment to responsive design, intuitive workflows and rigorous data integrity—ensuring that anyone from policymakers to curious community members can explore historical and contemporary crises in a single, unified environment.