GIS approach for disaster management through awareness - an overview
 Fig.3: Steps of Integrated Analysis Methodology As mentioned earlier, GIS is used for designing an awareness program based on the following factors
Hazard zonation Various regions are affected by various hazards and the zonation of hazards based on their risk frequency, magnitude or intensity would help us determine what hazard affects a particular area (location) more. This in turn, helps us to concentrate on the hazard and the level of awareness that has to be created in that area. By this way one can reduce the money spent on awareness as the money that is spent is not uniform but based on the hazard risk. This results in considerable savings and no compromise is made on the awareness that ought to be created. More over, hazard zonation also helps us in the development programs that are charted out i.e., it helps us to decide as to what type of development should take place over a particular area, so that the hazard does not affect the development. Hence, hazard zonation is the most important factor in the design of the awareness program. Land use It is the most important factor (map) after the hazard zonation map, which tells us as to how the land has been used over the zonated area. It also gives us a clear picture as what type of land use are to be affected by a hazard and what would be the extent of the loss of property and wealth of the people. It also helps us in estimating the areal extent that has to be covered during an awareness program if the people are to be approached directly, thereby helping us to calculate the number of personnel that would be required based on time and the cost that would be involved in conducting such a program. Population density The population density of a particular location gives us an indication of the number of people who are to be affected by a hazard and also gives us an indication of the chances of the hazard culminating into a disaster. With regard to the awareness program, population density gives us the cost and time involved (when the population density is more the cost and the time involved to create awareness is more and creation of awareness is most important) in the awareness program. Literacy Literacy is again a major factor in creating awareness. Literate people can be made aware easily as they understand easily and with less effort and money. Literacy also decides the media that has to be used to create awareness among people. For example, the media can be written media like newspapers, magazines, pamphlets and seminars and symposiums, for the literate and for the illiterate the awareness can be in the form of audio-visual media like radio, television, cinema and street plays. This again channelises the money being spent. Media Usage This refers to the media being used by the people for news, entertainment and in general acquiring information like cinema, street plays, television, radio, newspapers and magazines. Based on the media which is most used, the awareness can be created through that media which makes the work simple and again reduces the cost. Media usage is a factor which is more or less based on literacy. For example, literate people tend to use more of written media to get information whereas the illiterate people use more of audio-visual media. Thus media usage is a very vital factor in creating awareness. When the hazard zonation map, land use map, population density map, literacy map and media usage map are input to a GIS and then an overlay is performed by giving weights and ranks to the various factors. The result of the overlay would give us areas where the awareness should be created, on what disaster, to what level, its intensity and the type of media that can be best used. Thus such an awareness program can be compared with an awareness program, if any, conducted earlier. This would help us estimate the success and also help us make any alteration in the awareness program. The justification of GIS usage for the design of awareness program comes from the following facts:
Remarks One should not be in the wrong notion that disasters can be managed by awareness alone. The idea behind awareness is to bring about mass participation in whatever activities that are being taken towards the welfare of the society. Thus, co-operation between the public and government organisations (related to disaster management) is a good indication of reducing disaster and building a healthier and safer nation. Conclusions The authors would like to conclude that a GIS designed awareness program to manage disasters would improve the present methods of disaster management as well as the quality of awareness programs. Thus, by integrating the hazard zonation, land use, population density, literacy rate and media usage data using GIS, the process of creating awareness is approached in a holistic manner, which would not be possible otherwise. Moreover, the following would result if such an awareness program is implemented.
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