Seeing the potential threat to the exports of Akwa Ibom, a state located in the Niger Delta, the need for plans for the occurrence of a disaster are being met using GIS technology. Not only to contain any spill of oil, a resource that accounts for 90-95% of the total exports of the area, but also to protect the surrounding natural resources from man-made hazards. With this recognition two parts were taken into considerations; hazard refers to the probability of occurrence of potentially damaging phenomenon, vulnerability is the degree of loss resulting from the occurrence of the phenomenon. First a hazard map is created using
several factors,
several factors,
and then a vulnerability map is created.
The combination of the two creates the risk map.
Questions asked in making these maps include who, what, and where would be impacted by the hazard, Synthesizing the maps using spatial analysis allows for plans to be made in any circumstance. This method
can be seen used again and again to predict many outcomes of disasters: Miller and Onwuteaka (1999), oil spills in Nigeria, Damen and Van Westen (2008), cyclone hazard zonation, are just a pair of many. After the creation of the maps Accessibility surface was created using Euclidian Distance tool of the Arcmap 9.1 software’s spatial analyst function with the road networks as source data. Settlement vulnerability then was analyzed. Followed by risks and zones being assigned to the areas that will be impacted. Then plans are made to mitigate the damage.
Article By: J. C. Udoh* and E. M. Ekanem
This type of map can be useful not only in this area, but all over the world. And this type of risk assessment can be varied to calculate other risks as well. Using the information calculated, it would be easy to narrow in on where to set up extra precautions.
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