Role of GIS in Disaster Management

Role of GI S in Di s aster Manag ement
By Pushp endra Jo h ari, Publis hed On: 31st July 2018
Disasters are spatial in nature as the y strike at a s peci fic locati on a nd

influence a par ticu lar area. Hence, lo cation intelli gence plays a critica l
role in disaster ma nagement. GI S cou pled with rem ote s ensing provi des a
basic framewor k that helps in all the stages of disa ster manageme nt
starting from prep aredness to respon se and recovery. T hrough advance d
wireless tech nologies and web - b ased GIS app lic ations, disa ster
managemen t by go vernments and oth er agencie s is bein g revolu tionized
and is enhanci ng t he coordinati on of response effo rts as well as planni ng
for disaster ris k re duction. GI S decisi on support sy stems for disaster have
been applie d in se veral parts of the world for effective manageme nt. Fo r
assessing disaster r isks, one needs an understandi ng of k ey disaster event
characteristic s su ch as location of impact (for exa mple, ear thquake
epicenter, cyclone landfall), physical characteristics ( magnitude in case
of earthquakes, ce n tral pressure in c as e of cyclo nes), l oc al conditio ns like
land use an d type a nd height o f struct ures.
These charact eristi cs require an unde rstanding o f the g eography of the

impacted area to m odel the hazard int ensity and sever ity a nd to understa nd
the impa ct on buil dings, i nfrastruc tu re and populat ion, and at the same
time respon d to th e disaster for e vac uation and re habili tation work s. Use
of GIS and remote sensing, he lps con duct all the se task s in a plan ned a n
efficient manner.
Earlier, when the c oncept of GIS di d not exist, respo nse decisions duri ng
disasters were take n mostly based on prior experience an d intuition rather
than any live infor mation. But t oday, live da ta on many parameter s suc h
as topog raphy, geograp hic fe at ures, p opulatio n, infrast ructure,
demographi cs can be crucial t o the re sponse and recover y activities. GI S
has the power to integrate data fr o m variou s so urces into a com mon
platform an d mak e it readily a cces sible to var ious stakeholder s for
disaster manage me nt. It enable s di sse mination of critica l infor mation in a
timely manne r in c ases of emergenc ie s. Further, the vi s ualization of thi s
data helps in analy zing a situation and taking quick decisi ons. In advance d
countries of the w orld, GIS has been successfull y utiliz ed to addre ss al l
phases of disaster managemen t —prep aredness, m itigatio n, response , an d
recovery. It is hel pful to lay a foun d ation of GI S as al l these stage s are
interconnect ed. Th e output of one sta ge serves as input to the next stage.
AWARE NESS & PREPAR EDNE SS
Some critic al ques tions that arise du r ing awarene ss and preparednes s for
disaster ma nageme nt are: Wh at is th e populatio n of the area, locatio n o f
buildings and inf r astructure, social and structu ral cha racteristics of the
area, popu lation at risk, e vacuat io n t ime and techni que , location of the
safe structure s that could be use d as s helters and o thers? GIS and re mote
sensing techniq ues can b e use d to buil d databa se of critic al faciliti es su ch
as hospi tals, ambu lances, fir e stat ion s, police stati ons, schools and o ther
places whic h can b e helpful for plann ing purpos es.
Disaster maps can be prepare d to show the ri sk zo nes (a reas that have the
potential to suffer ) as well as di sas ter impact zo nes (areas that ha ve
suffered). From a mitigation point o f view, h azar d m a ps can be created
for variou s nat ural and manu factured hazards s uch as flo ods, earth quakes,
cyclones, fo rest fir es etc., that help in understand ing the risk of a lo cation
and plannin g accor dingly for the same.
For e.g., in areas with high earthq uake vulnera bility , retrofittin g of
structures and e nforcing s trict b uilding c odes is necessary. Th e
government s and l ocal agencies can preplan and i mpro ve preparedne ss by
mapping evac uatio n routes, shelte r planning, de bris r emoval plann ing,
stocking en ough s u pplies, con ducting mock drill s etc.
PLANNI NG & MI TIGATI ON
Earlier, t he ro le of govern ments duri ng natur al cal amities was limited t o

rescue, relief, and rehabilitati on. W ith changin g time s, mitigati on and
main str eaming of disaster risk redu ction ha s beco me a crucial a ctivit y
requiring govern ment intervention. GIS is enabling development of
decision su pport s ystems capa ble of assessing ri sk fro m natural dis asters
and helping governments in mitigation and plann ing.
RMSI ha s deve lop ed an in novative ‘ Decision support s yste m for disas ter
risk reductio n’ that utilizes the outco mes of multi - hazar d risk assess ment
for activitie s per formed for mitig ation, prepar ednes s, response, and
recovery. This fra mework has been successfully implemented in several
nations of the w orld and has pro ven to be a n im pactful t ool f or
mainstream ing d is aster risk reduc tio n. Mathe matical m odeling a nd G IS
analytics for m the backbone of this fr amework.
RESPON SE & RE COVER Y
Respondin g to a di saster adeq uately r equires crit ical inf ormation l ike the
location where th e disaster has occu rred, intensity an d severity of the
event in various d isaster zon es, area s of max imum da mage, locat ion of
impacted popu lati on and the kind o f resources neede d to evacuate the
trapped pop ulatio n. GIS and remot e sensing tec hniq ues coupled with
technologie s like s atellite i magery, a erial pho tograp hy using ai rcraft or
drones can help fi nd answer s to ma n y such ques tions.
Soon after a dis ast er strikes, use of r emote sens ing tech nologies ( such as
aerial pho tograp hs or satell ite ima ge s) c an be used t o map the a ffected
locations an d com pare the data to h istorical info rmati on to assess the
overall d amage. W hile remo te sen sin g aids in m ap pr ep aration, GIS c an
be used for storag e of digitized map s , their visu alization and anal ysis.
There is a greater need for liaising o f the public and pr ivate sector. GIS
organizatio ns such as RMSI ar e equi pped to turn aroun d such tasks at a
faster rate, provid ed high resolutio n satellite imagery is made available
by the gove rnment bodies or p rivate c ompanies . Furt her, this is suppor ted
by on ground sam ple damage assess ment surveys con d ucted by experts.
RMSI e xperts ha v e participat ed m u ltiple tim es in su ch post disaster
surveys, incl uding the Gujarat earth q uake, Mumba i floo ds in 2005, Sur at
floods in 2 006 and Krishna River flo ods in 200 8.
Damage asse ssmen t helps in esti matin g the number o f ho useholds da maged
and famili es dis pla ced along with cas ualties an d injur ed in shor t term, as
well as the dama ged infrastructu re . It also helps in re -establishi ng
communica tion so that it performs be tter in future or laying foundatio n
for an emergen cy communicat io n network that could activates
immediatel y in th e aftermath of a di s aster. At t he same time, esti mates of
economic impacts and soci al im pacts can b e trace d as the infor mation
would help in i dent ifying t he m ost aff ected fa milies, part icularly widow s,
single par ent chi l dren, orph ans, p e rsons wit h disa bil ities and senior
citizens. Furtherm ore, GIS platforms have proven to be especially use ful
in connectin g disl ocated familie s. Open applicat ions with abilities t o
upload the photo graphs of missin g family mem bers and tagging the
location of ot her f amily m embers ha ve been applie d fo r several disas ters
worldwide.
With natural ha za rds becoming m or e frequent and sev ere, disaster ris k
reduction is t he ne ed of t he ho ur. Glo bal gove rnments a nd GIS comp anies
should work i n tan dem to devise inn o vative tools & me t hods to plan an
effective disaster management strategy and make the most of the
geospatial technol ogy.

Role of GIS in Disaster Management

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Role of GI S in Di s aster Manag ement

By Pushp endra Jo h ari, Publis hed On: 31st July 2018

Disasters are spatial in nature as the y strike at a s peci fic locati on a nd

These charact eristi cs require an unde rstanding o f the g eography of the

AWARE NESS & PREPAR EDNE SS

PLANNI NG & MI TIGATI ON

Earlier, t he ro le of govern ments duri ng natur al cal amities was limited t o

RESPON SE & RE COVER Y

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