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GIS and Natural Hazard Management




Elements of a Disaster Preparedness Plan
A Disaster Preparedness Plan is a document that is prepared after the preceding steps have been undertaken and forms the means by which all pertinent information can be collected collectively for ease of dissemination. The components of a typical plan include:
  • 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.


Figure: Example of precinct Master Plan

Once the recovery plans have been approved and contracts award, the projects can be tracked using GIS.


Figure: Example of tracking stages of projects using GIS
Conclusion
Disasters cost our society billions of dollars each year. Spending just a fraction on prevention measures and preparations can dramatically reduce the cost of disasters. GIS is a tool that can be utilized throughout the various phases of the disaster cycle radically improving the analysis and presentation of data, from recording details of what has happened in the past, to assisting in analyzing various mitigation scenarios; to mapping the progress of an extreme event as it occurs enabling decision makers to visually see the impact and thus redirect resources as required; to utilizing GIS as a planning tool for future recovery efforts.

Acknowledgements


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