A Case Study: Red Cross Finds Relief with First On-line Internet GIS Project
(Based on the study
of www.govtech.net )
The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the American Red Cross and AutoDesk have been working on a prototype Internet GIS-based disaster recovery program (GISDRP) for the past two years. When completed, the application will link street-level data, demographics and earthquake-intensity projections for Northern California, and the Bay Area in particular. The core of the GIS program is AutoCAD Map, software that combines map creation, editing and basic GIS functions; and AutoDesk MapGuide, a Web-based publishing tool with GIS capabilities for simple analysis, buffering and overlays. MapGuide can be used with a standard browser to look at maps and other spatial data on the Web and bring them into the user's PC through the web browser.
Although still under development, GISDRP has the potential to link demographics, street-level data and digital orthophotos -- digitized aerial photographs corrected for distortion due to tilt and relief -- of almost any region, community or neighborhood in the United States. The opportunity to test that premise under actual conditions came in the wake of flooding in coastal Alabama following Hurricane Georges. Although relief efforts were already under way, the system, once set up, produced maps and demographic data in greater detail and in considerably less time than would have been possible by drawing them from conventional data sources. It also enabled management directing the operation to match their services with community needs faster and with more accuracy. Although the American Red Cross has GIS capability at its national headquarters, this was the first time web was used to facilitate the operations in the field.
Using laptops, the field workers logged on to the Web site of Geographic Data Technology (GDT), in Lebanon, N.H., and from MapSet extracted street-level data for Alabama's coastal counties. Once the street-level data and demographics the data was ready it was merged with information provided by the Red Cross -- locations of various shelters, hotels, schools, armories, and the location and contact information for all the chapters in the state.
After initial setup, the system produced maps for various support operations. The management first wanted maps for damage-assessment teams and for truckers who needed directions to delivery points.
By looking at the demographics of the coastal areas that were affected, RedCross was able to place their service centers in areas most heavily affected, where the residents, based on their socioeconomic situation, would probably be most in needed. RedCross managed to do that very effectively. Using this technology, RedCross matched up its services and the community's needs a little more quickly and a little more purposefully than it would have in the past. The GISDRP was used to cover all of coastal Alabama, all the counties surrounding Mobile Bay, and assisted about 4,000 families within those counties.
Strengths
- Cost Effective
- Wider Reach
- Simple to use
- Facilitates Cooperative effort
- Faster Dissemination of information
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Weaknesses
- The existing dependency of
Internet access on normal communication network, which
may not work during disasters
- Sophisticated analysis
and modeling not possible at this stage
- Higher
bandwidth requirement
- Mobile internet still not
popular in India
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Opportunities
- Use of new
communication and networking technology for better
connectivity
- The reach can be extended to handheld
devices
- Higher bandwidth availability in the future
can make real time analysis possible
- With new
technologies like Image Servers, the cost of Internet
GIS applications can be further brought down
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Threats (Risks)- A comprehensive
Internet based GIS application could be difficult to
develop, and slower than a similar desktop GIS
application (Solution: Only put minimal functionality on
the web, and use it only as a supplementary tool)
- The
high initial cost of developing such application
(Solutions: Shared funding by various players involved
in the disaster management cycle)
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SWOT Analysis for the use of Internet GIS technology in the India
The Indian Perspective
With technology becoming more user-friendly, and cost-effective in India, Internet GIS can be now used for the management of disasters in India as well. For example, it can be used effectively in the event of any disaster for providing the first hand information about the extent of damage, the areas affected and to direct the rescue and relief operations. Taking the case of a hypothetical earthquake event, the first information that would be needed, is the location of the epicenter and the extent of the worst affected areas. The Internet GIS through its applications would enable the emergency managers to have a map of the affected area along with other statistics such as number of houses, the population, using which an estimation of the causalities and damage can also be done. The information stored online becomes widely accessible to the concerned agencies and people, and the various control rooms can be established having interconnections through a wide area network. This Internet based GIS system can also help in accessing the various map layers such as the transportation network- the network of rails and roads, the communication network and the status of infrastructure- physical as well as social. The information on the various road links, which get cut off due to the catastrophic event, can be updated on the net so that a clear picture of the available links can be provided, and the relief operations can be directed accordingly. Also, the information about the nearest hospital and other emergency services such as fire stations can be provided. The worst affected areas can be marked and all those regions where relief has already been provided can be shown in the maps. This enables the relief agencies to regulate their activities effectively. Apart from the applications during the disaster and post disaster, an Internet based GIS system can serve as a vital media for providing information related to disaster and during the pre-disaster phase to provide preparedness measures.
Overall, the use of Internet GIS has tremendous scope in the Indian context, considering the vulnerability of the country to disasters of various types, the extensive use of spatial data in disaster management, and the growing popularity of Internet. It has great potential, and has been put to good use in the other developed and developing countries as well. At the same time, use of Internet GIS in the Indian circumstances also poses some challenges, which need to be overcome in the coming years. A SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the scope and application of the Internet GIS in Indian scenario has been presented here.
Conclusions
The opportunities created by Internet based spatial applications are immense, and are being universally accepted. However, apart from bandwidth constraints, the technology involved in web applications offers some unique challenges for application developers. Despite all its constraints Internet GIS, can be immensely helpful in managing disasters. In a vast, and disaster-prone country like India, Internet GIS can be very much used for coordinating and managing the spatial data display and analysis needs of the various agencies involved in the various stages of the disaster management cycle, for any natural peril, and for any region.