GIS in Disaster Response

Examples of GIS in Disaster Response Phases

In the first stage of the response phase, GIS can assist decision makers in understanding the scope of the damage; analyze critical infrastructures for health services, food and goods supply, and transportation routes for potential evacuation and operations management; identify suitable locations for rescue officers and civil protection command posts, in case these areas have not yet been identified in emergency territorial plans; identify locations where people may be trapped or require rescue and medical assistance; and identify shelters and possible camps for refugees.

In the recovery phase, GIS can identify locations and best paths for obtaining and delivering supplies, communicate with people to reduce their sense of uncertainty on the condition of their homes and rescued people, and keep participants informed about the status of operations. If the disaster persists, GIS can assess and model the secondary effects of the event to warn people and organize a public safety response. GIS can produce mapping for the media, communicate the extent of damage, and enable field operations for outsiders. GIS can produce maps and documentation for all responsible levels of public safety in both logistical and financial resource support.

During the reconstruction phase, GIS can be used to support decision making and monitor land planning and to redefine hazard zones and distribution of risks both equal and unequal across various residents.

During the preparedness phase, GIS-based applications may include indicators of vulnerability at specific places, early warning systems, and systems to ease emergency response as well as community learning, simulations with citizens to build their awareness, communicating risk and proper behavior, and also receiving data and information from citizens.

In all stages, GIS can help track, assess, and visualize the status of the response and of relief and recovery efforts.

Criticisms and Further Development

Although GIS developments in disaster response have been noteworthy, there are weaknesses that ought to be overcome if further development is to follow. Some criticism comes from recent experiences with disaster management in the United States and abroad. It has been noted that during the emergency response phase of rescue and relief, the majority of first responders are not sufficiently familiar with GIS, nor are they likely to use GIS tools in the immediate rescue phases. In this regard, the major criticism of GIS involves the lack of intuitive user interfaces and the need for widespread adoption of GIS among governmental entities to increase awareness and their willingness to adopt GIS tools. A second issue is the need to organize and deliver effective training in GIS use to personnel of government agencies involved in disaster preparedness, response, and management, so that spatial data and their derivatives become a common language for operations. Data quantity, quality, availability, integration, and interoperability are in many instances underdeveloped, thus hampering the effectiveness and increasing the time of the response. Especially for rural areas, some data sets important for disaster response often do not exist. There is an increasing need for integrated spatial data systems linking local georeferenced data with national spatial data and a need to provide updated data on local building inventories, geology, and critical infrastructure as well as better temporal and spatial estimates of tourists, homeless people, undocumented workers, and daytime populations. More research efforts should be invested in integrating physical processes and social models for enhanced predictions of impacts. Another need relates to developing GIS workflows, enabling cooperation among agencies.

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