There is a domain of public health loosely called "rapid assessment" which has been used for the situation you describe.  It typically involves sending out people in teams of two, starting at the epicenter of the disaster or the area of highest population affected, and having the teams go in different directions, house to house, village to village, etc..  The teams use questionnaires to assess whether each household they contact needs medical care, has received medical care, clean water, electricity, how much food supply they have, has missing persons in the household and so forth, and if they have been visited by emergency or relief workers.   There are various schemes for systematic sampling in this manner, such as sampling every third house out to a specified radius from the epicenter; and other sampling frames.   It is important that each team follows the sampling frame the same way.   In this way, a statistical picture is built which can estimate the number of people in need, what kind of needs they have, their well-being level, structural damage assessments, and used to deploy resources.   Also GIS is invaluable in these situations.  The technology probably exists to have the asessment teams mark their sampling locations on a GIS map even if maps do not yet exist for the affected areas.   The sampling will capture an approximate picture of course but it is much better than nothing.  And if there are enough teams and enough sampling is done in this way, an objective and reasonable estimate of the disaster and the needs of the citizens can be obtained.   This was used successfully after hurricanes and flooding in Texas.   

Thank you very much Jerry Miller. Let me check.

Adding to Jerry's GIS answer, the Google Earth tracking can be used to monitor population shifts as well as land mass and the built environment. Depending upon where, the resolution is quite outstanding and freely available. I'm going to focus more on the epidemic intelligence side since this hasn't been answered.

This is an area where Citizen Science is becoming increasingly important. However, one must cross verify even more so with these types of data. The meterology community has been using citizen science (trained spotters) to report in on a numbe of conditions and the results have been utilized to direct scarce resources.

Twitter is increasingly being used to monitor damage by selecting the appropriate hashtag. In the same vein, Google searches/trends may provide indicators (e.g. searches by localities for concussion, splinting, unassisted childbirth. lacerations due to collapsing buildings or projectivel glass, etc.) The key with these is knowing how to search. These technologies would not have helped much when confined to desk top computers but with cell phones having leap-frogged landlines in developing or Lower and Middle-Income countries, it is much more reliable to use these.

Then there are a number of free apps such as FluNearYou, and various health mapping apps which allow you to tick off specific diseases or conditions by area and look at the official reporting. Note: I have no connection to any of these companies or programs. HealthMap uses a variety of social media including Twitter, Facebook, provider networks, and even purchasing patterns.

http://www.healthmap.org/ebola/

http://www.healthmap.org/en/

http://www.germtrax.com/Map.aspx

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) our of the University of Washington in Seattle is working to improve world wide data. Here is one of their visualization tools: http://vizhub.healthdata.org/us-health-map/

World Mapper also has a fabulous way of displaying how the burden of disease or lack of providers or resources proportionately impact by using rates per population base and inflating or deflating the size of a country by these.

Good luck and if you have more questions, feel free to ask follow ups.

Chris

http://www.healthmap.org/ebola/

http://www.healthdata.org/

http://www.publichealthnewswire.org/?p=4793

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/tracking/partners/apha.html

http://vizhub.healthdata.org/us-health-map/null

http://www.worldmapper.org/

Thank you very much Chris Hafner-Eaton. Let me study.

The ones I listed are not specifically Nepal oriented but the organizations should have info on SE Asia.  Another source you might check (I don't know if this is publicly available) is the Oak Ridge National Laboratories.

Another possibility would be derive a relationship between something like carbon emmissions which are tracked in Nepal http://cdiac.ornl.gov/epubs/ndp/ndp068/ndp068.html

If you could develop an algorithm where there is a relationship between to variables and you only have one of them, you then might use the other as a proxy measure. I'm not familiar with what happens to carbon emissions following an earthquake (could hypothesize that there is a decrease due to not having gasoline and crude oil pumped in or there may be an inverse relationship if carbon that was locked in say peat bogs is released. The point being, you need to think outside the box to get your measures. I do know that the US military uses many of these types of indicators. (I do not work in the military but as a civilian health science policy analyst.

"2015 Award Recipient Announced NVIDIA is pleased to announce the 2015 Global Impact Award recipient: San Diego Supercomputer Center. Dr. Yifeng Cui and team’s winning work in earthquake simulation for the improvement of seismic hazard analysis addresses the needs of a massive global population in earthquake-impacted areas. We’d also like to recognize Johannes Kepler University Linz with an Honorable Mention. To learn more about our recipient and this year’s finalists, visit the links below. San Diego Supercomputer Center Johannes Kepler University Baylor College of Medicine Oak Ridge National Laboratory University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - See more at:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/global-impact-award.html#sthash.Sn7kY1Ak.dpuf

http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2015/02/27/mapping-the-world-with-gpus/

http://web.ornl.gov/sci/gist/

http://www.nvidia.com/object/global-impact-award.html#sthash.Sn7kY1Ak.dpuf

Here's another resource for you:

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/techtank/posts/2015/05/1-nepal-information-revolution?utm_campaign=Brookings+Brief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=17452265&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9y0bfe6b5OQZ_CbXfkyiIEBhZdhdhTXeVZzddRlNOKwc8oMaJrtcvNF0RmjQTky6CmYAmmIc0b4axXIueLq7llOeHnZNxn1BsnbwvBa8tBD2KU6uI&_hsmi=17452265

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/techtank/posts/2015/05/1-nepal-information-revolution?utm_campaign=Brookings+Brief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=17452265&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9y0bfe6b5OQZ_CbXfkyiIEBhZdhdhTXeVZzddRlNOKwc8oMaJrtcvNF0RmjQTky6CmYAmmIc0b4axXIueLq7llOeHnZNxn1BsnbwvBa8tBD2KU6uI&_hsmi=17452265

 Thanks once again Chris Hafner-Eaton.

http://un.org.np/un-ocha

http://un.org.np/ocha-hsu

Do you want a framework or information on the response.  Information can be found via UNOCHA link, also the Office of US Foreign Disasters (OFDA) has a team and resources on the ground and can provide information.

Enclosed you will find the field guide used by OFDA for disasters and response.

Thank you Diana, It might be useful for better understanding of Nepalese situation...

I suggest using the tool narrative, rather simple and straightforward, but it provides elements  of major impact in the disaster  

Dear Giovanna Artioli, would you suggest some common narrative tools/ guidelines for assessing the immediate response to disasters/natural calamities?

Based upon your research question, you should create some open-ended questions that delve into the subject.  These questions should also have additional probing questions that support digging deeper into the meaning or to generate more information.  This semi-structured approach to understanding an issue is found in most qualitative research methods books.  It requires training those who will be conducting the interviews. What is the question you are researching?

I propose a qualitative research based on narrative interview or, if it is too full of emotions, I would use a more neutra tool, the autobiography