Before GIS technology, the resource base for making critical decisions was limited to the experience of the person in charge of handling the situation. If this person lacked any specific knowledge in a crisis, there was no way to get that knowledge. Now, however, GIS can provide vast amounts of information to anyone trained to interpret it.
One of the challenges with using GIS technology in these settings is keeping them updated. In order to do this, government agencies and other organizations need to provide current regional foundational datasets. The development of this resource base has taken huge amounts of time and effort and is still in progress.
ArcGIS Online is a particular tool that can be accessed instantly because its data is stored "in the cloud", thus eliminating the need to download, process, and manage datasets with the geospatial information contained in GIS programs. Esri has a library of basemaps that can be incorporated into ArcGIS Online, and current-year demographic information can be found on the ArcGIS website. Additionally, ArcGIS Online hosts a community of other individuals that shares maps, services, layers, apps, and tools. Live feed data is available for dealing with real-time meteorological emergencies.
In 2010, Queensland, Australia suffered from intense flash-flooding. Emergency managers were able to set up a common operation procedure application in just 12 hours that provided them quick access to the latest and most accurate information. Alabama Marine Police were also able to make use of GIS data to respond to the Deepwater Horizon event in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, applying biodirectional capability to the large-scale disaster.
Other programs are being developed and partnered with to make GIS technology accessible even to nonspecialists. Integration into Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Youtube through live incident response apps is becoming popular. The use of cloud computing and the interactive nature of ArcGIS Online has set the example for these programs.
http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0112/answering-emergency-management-information-needs.html
One of the coolest things about the application of GIS to emergency management is the integration of social networks like Twitter and Facebook.
ReplyDeleteAs for emergency web gis systems. The state of texas has a nice one at: http://gemss.tnris.org/ It is a cloud based GIS system which is provides information to first responders when natural distaters hit. The public can sign up for an account and use it. Check it out it is pretty cool.
Here is a Microsoft white paper about GEMSS: http://www.tnris.org/node/37
This reminds me of the "Hurricane Katrina" maps that we worked on. The before and after the hurricane and how we can prevent future disasters by analyzing the data.
ReplyDeleteThis technology is awesome, I can't think of a better use. When applied right it will be used to save so many lives, while also eliminating the chance of human error (well to an extent).
ReplyDeleteI had actually thought about writing an article on this same topic, and its good to see that my general view of how GIS can be used in disaster relief is shared. After Katrina and the Joplin Tornado mapping assignments, this is a really neat tie-in.
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