GIS for disaster mitigation and civil defence in TIROL/Austria
Abstract
Since 1999, GIS is integrated in many organisations of GO and NGOs in Tirol/Austria. The paper
shows some aspects how to use GIS and how Web GIS applications are used local/large scale level
and regional, small scale level (IKI).
GIS and disaster mitigation – 1999 to 2002
Thuesday, 23
rd
Februar 1999, 16:05: “….a big avalanche struck to Galtür. More than 60 people are
missed….” This information from the district police headquarter was the start to one of the biggest
rescue operation in Austria since many years.
Residents in Galtür managed are to dig out about 20 people, but 31 more were still buried as night fell.
No outside help has reached Galtuer, because earlier avalanches had blocked the main road and bad
weather prevented helicopters from flying in. 24 hours later, a second deadly avalanche smashed into
Valzur – only a few kilometer near Galtür. Valzur was reached within a few hours by a specialist
rescue team of around 150 people, and two people were rescued quickly, but 7 people died.
A day later, on of the biggest air rescue operation was startet to evacuate nearly 20.000 people with
65 helicopter from 5 different nations, but to late for 37 people.
Saturday, 8:45 PM, an alarm at the regional warning center: “...abnormalincident in a nuclear power
station close to the Austrian - Swiss border;radioactive discharge; due to the weather condition there is
a chance that
the radioactive cloud could pass Austria...”.
In its dimension, those two events are totally different. The second event describes a state spanning
incident, the first one “just” a local problem but this happened 1999.
But in both cases, there will be always the same question: “Where is the nuclear power station” or
“Where is a proper helicopter landing spot”? A quick answer is possible if GIS is in work.
Experience has shown that there are at least three basic assumptions necessary before GIS can be
efficiently incorporated into operational disaster management (Noggler 2000a).
The decision-makers in the operations centre must be fully aware of the possibilities offered by
GIS, ensuring routine implementation when a disaster occurs.
Given the above knowledge, it must be possible for the operations centre personnel to see which
information is available in which locality (e.g. tiris.gem database).
The available digital data must be processed with the relevant algorithms, and be quickly
accessible - well catered for using GIS on the Internet. The inclusion of digital data can then become
commonplace when dealing with future disasters. Not only can the required specific information for a
given disaster be made available rapidly and widely, it can also be updated frequently. The use of GIS
maps on the Web has to be simple to use, clear and unequivocal - especially important given its use in
high-stress situations (e.g. IKI and local GIS Web applications – tiris Geographic Services )..In fact there exist already lots of different geographic and non spatial information which i s easily and
fast available for operational teams.
