Disaster Management Support Program
Indian states falling under vulnerable zones to natural disasters like earthquake, floods, cyclones, landslides, bank erosions etc. This areas requires a lot of management systems for mitigating, preparing, responding and recovering through various technologies. The evolution of computer technology and availability of hardware is helpful in disaster research and practice. GIS, Remote Sensing and GPS and Scientific research methodology are useful in disaster management applications and for decision making. GIS is useful for hazard zone mapping, mitigating strategies and preparedness plans. Real-time geographic information can improve the allocation of resource for response. Some of the other techniques in disaster management are-
- Participatory maps and crowd sourced event data
- Geospatial platforms
- Data Analysis and Data visualization
- Live simulation models
- Computational and statistical models
Database collection for various types of disasters:
Copernicus Emergency Management Service Wide Swath Sentinel-2 data are some of the remote sensing data that can be used for impact assessment as well as detect land-use change that triggers erosion and the outset of flood. Sentinel-2 imagery can help identify suitable locations for large refugee camps and can also be used to monitor these camps. Some of the database requirement as per the disaster events are-
Earthquake | Epicenters, geologic formations, intensity, magnitude, displacement, recurrence interval and historical seismicity. | Interpolation map showing distribution of magnitude in different areas, map of vulnerability areas, buffer map of intensity, map showing changes in the geologic structures. |
Landslide | Inventories, geologic formations, slope, velocity, displacement, earthquake recurrence, rainfall patterns, bank cutting rates. | Susceptibility maps showing slope type, soil type and distribution, risk map, inventory maps showing the locations, date of occurrence and impact on the landform and evacuation maps |
Flood | Channel, floodway, floodplain, elevation, volume, velocity, rate of rise and historical return periods. | Historical flood map showing affected areas of different time frame, flood depths demonstrating the maximum depth and affected area using buffer maps |
Hazard and disaster mapping:
There are different types and ways of mapping different disaster events using GIS techniques and methods. Some of the maps that can be prepared are-
- Hazard map that includes time frame/ likelihood reference
- Risk maps showing the consequence of an event with likelihood scale
- Susceptibility map that combines different factors which contribute to a hazard to give an indication of where hazard is more likely to occur
- Inventory maps showing a collection of events that have occurred at a location
- Evacuation maps to plan for evacuation in an event.
- Preparation of maps for different disaster events:
Benefits of mapping:
Plotting database and information on maps makes it easier to visualise and understand the subject matter better for planning and making better and quicker decisions. GIS provides excellent analytical tools and techniques for assessing vulnerability and risk specially when combined with the mapping of critical facilities. One such benefit is the Multiple Hazard Mapping that gathers information together as one map for studying hazards of varying magnitude, frequency and area of effect. Many hazards can be caused by the same natural event. On Multiple Hazard Mapping , the inducing and triggering mechanism that interconnects several hazards can be easily seen.