How GIS can help with emergency planning and management

MAKATI CITY, Philippines - April 3, 2017 - PRLog -- GIS Hazard mapping involves not only mapping where the hazards are, but also where people live and work relative to the hazard area and risk.

Hazard mapping has evolved hand-in-hand with the understanding that we can never truly control nature. Mapping has shifted from a focus on the event itself (modeling physical processes) toward a focus on understanding interactions between people and the environment.

GIS is more than mapping. It is also an analytical, data management and visualization tool. GIS can be used for situational awareness, for identifying ideal locations for prepositioning assets ahead of an impact, for understanding the relationship between hazard exposure and social vulnerability as part of the hazard mitigation planning process.

GIS models and simulation capabilities enable decision-makers to both exercise response and recovery plans during non-disaster times and also understand near real-time possibilities during an event. Essentially, if you have data, it can be mapped, analyzed and utilized to make better decisions in a measurable amount of time.

The best thing that emergency managers can do is identify local partners who could assist with mapping and analysis needs. This could be a local community college, college or university.

The other option is to work through the local planning departments and councils of government. Rather than focusing on the master planning process, work with them on emergency management topics such as hazard mitigation and risk assessment.

There are many forms of social data — information about people such as age, income, ethnicity drawn from various sources, or data derived from social media. Knowing about the landscape of vulnerability groups helps to identify which populations may need assistance in preparing for, responding to and recovering from events.

Social data from social media is currently used to disseminate messages and information from emergency management in a top-down approach. Steps are being made in research circles to utilize "citizens as sensors" to create a more realistic real-time picture for situational awareness to aid decision-makers.

The choice of software will be a function of the resources and expertise that is locally available. If you don't have a dedicated GIS person, it may not make sense to have the full complement of GIS software. In these instance use of "best available" data from online sources may be the appropriate choice. On the other hand, Web-mapping, mobile data collection and analysis, and desktop modeling using GIS software is now approachable and very useful for the less than hardcore GIS user.

Mobile Technology & GIS

Mobile technologies such as smart-phones are revolutionizing how we use and access data, emergency management and mapping.

For example, we now collect field data on recovery using iPads and directly upload data to the cloud and our servers. This technology not only cuts down on processing time (and errors) but it also means we can generate maps much more quickly. Real-time damage data could be collected using this method post-disaster, meaning that detailed preliminary damage assessments can be produced in hours, not days. Add in citizen sensor data from social media and the possibilities of crowd-sourced damage and recovery information becomes a reality.

Social Media & GIS

Mobile devices have geocoding within them. Currently, we can as an example, look at twitter and see what is being said and (more importantly) where tweets are coming from on the ground. Maps of the tweets and content provide a better picture of the situational awareness, impacts and citizen status in a truly ground-up rather than top-down approach. It is an exciting and new field that is relatively unexplored at present.

Just because you can use GIS software, doesn't mean you understand the fundamental nature of spatial (or geographic) relationships. Once they see the map, emergency managers need to ask additional questions as to why. The map shows the distribution of shelters and occupancy, for example, but a further question is why are some shelters over-subscribed while others are not? Also GIS personnel should become aware of the pitfalls of using certain classification or symbolization schemes so as to avoid misrepresenting data or displaying data out of context.

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