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abstract

Pacific Disaster Center's Support to Indian Ocean Tsunami Response and Recovery

Chris Chiesa
Senior Manager
Pacific Disaster Center, USA
Email: cchiesa@pdc.org

Todd Bosse
GIS Analyst
Pacific Disaster Center, USA
Email: tbosse@pdc.org

Rhett Rebold
Sr. Imagery Analyst
Pacific Disaster Center, USA
Email: rrebold@pdc.org

Mike Napier
GIS Analyst
Pacific Disaster Center, USA
Email: mnapier@pdc.org

Abstract
In response to the 26 December 2004 earthquake and resulting tsunami, the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) immediately sprang into action. Within days, PDC launched the ArcIMS software-based Indian Ocean Tsunami Response Geospatial Information Service and a related Map Viewer, providing high-resolution satellite imagery and GIS information to hundreds of organizations and their staff. Working in close collaboration with Mercy Corps International, the United Nations, and a number of other organizations, PDC received and processed hundreds of images, totalling nearly 1.5 TB of information, received via the U.S. Government's Commercial Satellite Imagery Library (CSIL). PDC also deployed GIS analysts to provide direct support to response and recovery efforts in Thailand and Indonesia where they collected and applied geospatial information required to assess damage to infrastructure, locate refuge camps, and land relief supply-laden helicopters. PDC also established an earthquake notification system to provide timely warning to relief workers potentially exposed to harmful aftershocks.

Details of the Map Viewer and its information contents and how they were used to support response and recovery activities, as well as the relationship between the Map Viewer and the Pacific Disaster Center's "Asia Pacific Natural Hazards Information Network" will be provided.