Introduction
The last twelve months has seen numerous well-publicized catastrophic natural disasters occur
throughout the world, including the tsunami of Asia, several hurricanes of the USA, and the
earthquakes of Pakistan/India. What each of these events has in common aside from the extent
of loss of life, livelihood and materials, was the lack of preparedness of authorities to react to
each event. Now that the events have passed and communities are back on the road to recovery,
many observers are commenting on what could have been done better. There is an old saying of
being “wiser after the event” which seems particularly true when such extreme events occur. This
paper describes an approach to being better prepared to handle devastating events, and where
GIS technology has a role to play.
Types of Disasters
Disasters can be categorized in two forms, either natural or man-made. Natural disasters are
natural processes or phenomena occurring in the biosphere that may constitute a damaging
event. They can be classified as earthquakes, volcanic activity, mass movement (landslides, rock
falls, avalanches), floods and mudflows, storms (hailstorms, blizzard, rain, wind, tropical cyclones,
storm surges), drought, desertification, heat waves, sand or dust storms, fire. Man-made
disasters are man-induced phenomena that may constitute a damaging event. They can be
classified terrorism, war, and engineering faults.\
Below are a few statistics on the human and economic losses experienced from recent disaster
events.
Event Deaths Homelessness Economic cost
$126 billion to
Kobe Japan 1995
5,100 300,000 repair basic
earthquake
infrastructure
Izmit Turkey 1999
18,000 300,000 $13 billion repair bill
earthquake
Bam Iran 2003
41,000 75,000
earthquake
Ash Wednesday Fire, 76 2,400 AUD $400 million
Victoria Australia Feb
property loss
1983
October Fire Siege cost of fire $12
24 3,700
2004, California USA billion
Hurricane Andrew, $26.5 billion in
26
Florida USA, Aug 1992 damages
Heat wave, France, Aug
15,000
2003
Ice Storm, Canada, Jan $5.4 billion in
28 600,000
1998 damages
$2.5 billion
Exxon Valdez oil spill
cleanup costs
1989
alone
World Trade Centre –
building collapse on 2,700
September 11, 2001
Preparation is the key to mitigating disaster events. The World Bank and the USGS in a recent
study estimated that economic losses worldwide for natural disasters in the 1990s could have
been reduced by $280 billion if $40 billion had been invested in prevention measures. Those
organizations taking steps to minimize disaster effects are preparing disaster plans and ultimately
working by these plans when an extreme event occurs.
Technology is increasingly being used to assist in the preparation of disaster plans, assisting in
operational activities following a disaster event, and assisting in the long-term recovery planning
and monitoring processes. GIS, with its capability for displaying, managing and modeling spatial
data is one of the technology tools increasingly being used.
Each of these facets is described in greater detail below, and how GIS can be utilized.
As each geographic area is different, so too are the threats. For example, around the equator
there is greater likelihood of severe storms (hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons) and flooding, whilst a
location that is surrounded by heavily timbered forests and commonly encounters electrical
storms, is more likely to be threatened by fires. Local geography also comes into consideration,
e.g. Low lying areas are more subjected to floods than high lying areas. Steep sided slopes in
areas of high precipitation are more likely to be subjected to land slides or slippage. The time of
year also needs to be considered, e.g. fires are more prevalent late in the summer when
grasslands and forests are tinder dry.
Figure: Layers of information utilized in a disaster management system
Other types of information that are important for consideration includes infrastructure and facilities
data such as the locations and specifics of law agencies, medical facilities, evacuation areas,
communications centers, transport networks, emergency power and water supply, shelter areas
and burial centers that can be used when an extreme event occurs. In addition, information such
as property details, geology, hydrology, soils, vegetation, transport networks, contours, are also
useful.
Once this information has been collected it can be stored in a GIS where the data can undergo
further modeling, analysis and display to help identify if patterns exist as to where and when
disasters repeat themselves and which areas are more at risk than others.
Mitigation
Once the types of hazards likely to impact a given area have been accessed and understood, the
areas of most vulnerability can be easily identified from maps. Master plans can be formulated to
address these areas of vulnerability. For instance, in flood prone areas, a review of municipal
zoning could be undertaken and recommendations made to restrict new buildings in the areas
subject to most flood inundation, instead leaving these places as open public areas; river bank
levees could be designed and constructed, etc.
Mitigation measures are usually left to the local, state or federal authorities. Whilst many
authorities in developed nations are now being proactive in taking measures to reduce the impact
of disasters, many developing nations are waiting until after an extreme event has occurred
before addressing the issue.
In either case, GIS analysis is being used to assist authorities identify areas where mitigation
effort should be concentrated. The first example shown below depicts areas at risk to flood [red
being high risk, yellow being medium risk and green being low risk], whilst the second example
shows areas at risk to landslide [areas depicted in orange to red being most at risk]. Using such
maps generated by GIS, the authorities can then review policies such as building codes for these
specific areas, rezoning effected areas, and/or develop a program of civil works to minimize
potential risks.
Changing building codes so that building structures are raised above flood peaks, building water
levees, building basement structures to withstand earthquakes, clearing zones around houses in
fire risk areas, are just some of the ways that authorities and individuals are working towards
minimizing the impact of extreme events when they occur.
Preparedness
It is important to subdivide an area up into zones of management and to disseminate this
information to the various authorities so that everyone is clear as to who has jurisdiction over an
area during an extreme event. Without these management zones, chaos and duplication of effort
can result. Within each zone, the number and type of each support facility able to assist in
responding to a disaster needs to be delineated on maps and communicated to all concerned
authorities.
For each management zone, it is important to identify how many and the location of:
structures such as sports stadiums, schools or shopping centers available that can be
used for emergency shelter, outside of the reach of the identified treat;
medical centers, the type of facilities they have and how many casualties they can
handle;
evacuation points close to the identified emergency shelters suitable for landing
helicopters;
emergency response organizations (voluntary, fire, law, search & rescue etc) having
facilities with appropriate machinery (response vehicles, generators, emergency supplies
of tarps, tents, blankets etc);
cemeteries or areas that can be used for burial at a distance from the identified
emergency shelters;
the shortest path and alternate routes between various locations and facilities
backup communication systems, power generation, water purification plants.
If insufficient facilities exist within a zone, either the zone boundary needs to be re-adjusted or
facilities need to be established. GIS analysis can be used to help identify the zone boundaries
having mapped what was available. It can also be used to quickly identify where deficiencies
exist.
In addition to management zone maps, maps need to be communicated to the general public
identifying the location of support facilities / evacuation routes as well as guidelines as what to do
when an extreme event occurs. The guidelines will identify who should receive warnings about
potential hazards, its severity, when, how often, and by which means – newspapers, TV, radio, or
emergency personnel door knocking.
The map below shows evacuation routes, points and hospital locations in downtown Charleston
to be utilized in Carolina USA in the event of a hurricane.
Hazard identification & Vulnerability Assessment – describes the potential hazards for an
area including the probability of frequency, an assessment of the vulnerability, and the
preparedness of authorities to react
Evaluation of existing authorities – describes the weaknesses and strengths of authorities
responsible for handling disasters in an area, and makes recommendations for correcting
the weaknesses. Evaluation of the early warning and communication systems is also
undertaken
Intergovernmental agreements that support hazard mitigation – details agreements
between governmental authorities as to the responsibilities and roles of each authority in
handling a disaster
Mitigation programs – describes various mitigation programs identified to limit the impact
of a disaster event, those who are responsible for conducting the programs, and any
budgetary considerations identified
Evaluation criteria and policies for regular review – details procedures for the regular
review for preparedness of an area to handle a disaster. This may include staging mock
events and evaluating the responses of participants in order to identify any shortcomings
that require correcting
Potential losses due to hazard impact – identifies various disaster scenarios and the
potential losses given current conditions versus those once the mitigation programs have
been implemented. This assists the decision makers to channel funding to the high
priority impact areas.
Response
No matter how much preparation may be done, some disasters are unavoidable. When a disaster
is identified as being imminent such as a flood or a storm front moving in, or during an event such
as a fire, earthquake, or volcanic eruption, emergency managers must decide as to how they will
respond to the event. The Disaster Preparedness Plan will provide some procedures and a
sequence of tasks that must be taken. The skill of the emergency manager is to rapidly assess
the disaster effects and immediately mobilize resources for recovery.
Doing a rapid reconnaissance of the disaster and mapping the location of the effected area can
aid emergency managers in deciding how many resources, what type of resources and where
best to place the resources to effect maximum response in the least amount of time. As an
example in fighting fires, helicopters equipped with GPS units and video cameras fly along the
front of a fire at regular intervals. GPS data, together with other up-to-date information such as
weather forecast, are transmitted to the command center where it is fed into a GIS system,
analyzed and decisions made as to how to tackle the changing fire front.
Figure: Helicopter with GPS and video system feeds data back to a command center where it is
analyzed and decisions made as to locating resources.
The same information fed to the control center can also be made available on the web for
transmission to remote locations. With the use of such technology, emergency managers can
rapidly redirect resources as needed, allowing fire teams to react in minutes or hours where
previously it would take days for information to be received and decisions to be made.
Recovery
With the emergency response teams deployed into the ‘hot zones’ of a disaster, the recovery
phase looks at returning the scene back to normal as soon as is possible. This usually involves
two phases of recovery. A short-term phase that restores all vital life-support systems so that a
population’s immediate needs are addressed. This may include the provision of temporary
shelter, bedding, fuel to cook, and basic food and water needs. As soon as possible, power and
water supplies are restored, and debris cleared.
The second longer-term phase sets about rebuilding the community. This may take 10s of years
to accomplish. It usually involves incorporating lessons-learnt from the extreme event and may
involve changing legislation such as land zoning, building codes, policies, law, etc. Securing
support from various relief funding agencies and government authorities will need to be obtained
if the recovery efforts are to progress.
Recovery plans will be prepared to guide the vision of the recovery, to return the community back
to a better state than that before the extreme event occurred. There will also be a requirement to
monitor the progress of the recovery program to ensure that funds are being spent as they were
originally intended, and that the rebuilding priorities are being undertaken as originally scheduled.
GIS can be used in the preparation of recovery plans, developing various scenarios and providing
visualization of results. Master Plans can be prepared and display using GIS encompassing
environmental, community and economic considerations.
Once the recovery plans have been approved and contracts award, the projects can be tracked
using GIS.