Zar Chi Aye

The connection between long-term and short-term risk management strategies:examples from land-use planning and emergency management in four European case studies

Adaptation to complex and unforeseen events requires enhancing the links between planning and preparedness phases to reduce future risks in the most efficient way. In this context, the legal–administrative and cultural context has to be taken into account. This is why four case study areas of the CHANGES project (Nehoiu Valley in Romania, Ubaye Valley in France, Val Canale in Italy, and Wieprzówka catchment in Poland) serve as examples to highlight currently implemented risk management strategies for land-use planning and emergency preparedness. The focus is particularly on flood and landslide hazards. The strategies described in this paper were identified by means of exploratory and informal interviews in each study site. Results reveal that a dearth or, in very few cases, a weak link exists between spatial planners and emergency managers. Management strategies could benefit from formally intensifying coordination and cooperation between emergency services and spatial planning authorities. Moreover, limited financial funds urge for a more efficient use of resources and better coordination towards long-term activities. The research indicates potential benefits to establishing or, in some cases, strengthening this link through contextual changes, e.g., in organizational or administrative structures, that facilitate proper interaction between 1Marie Curie ITN CHANGES – Changing Hydrometeorological Risks as Analyzed by a New Generation of European Scientists risk management and spatial planning. It also provides suggestions for further development in the form of information and decision support systems as a key connection point.

Prototype of an open-source web-GIS platform for rapid disaster impact assessment

Abstract Impacts of natural disasters have increased worldwide in the past decades. Earthquakes are one of the disasters that have been studied for real-time analysis and crisis management. Disaster-related losses have been examined by the damage extent of the houses, infrastructures, fatalities and injuries converted to financial losses. Web-GIS technologies provide a wide range of solutions to map these damages, analyze data and publish the results on the web. Open-source tools and data have been widely used today because they stay free and facilitate access to data especially significant in developing countries. This research presents a web-GIS prototype using open-source geo-spatial technologies such as Postgis, GeoServer, Geoexplorer and OpenStreetMap (OSM) to evaluate the rapid impact of naturally produced disasters like earthquake for the estimation of total damages. For this purpose, expert knowledge such as earthquake intensities and vulnerability inputs are imported into the system. Moreover, OSM data for building information are also extracted for the analysis and the loss of the damage is then rapidly estimated and visualized in the platform. This work is part of a project for catastrophe modeling based on open-source data and software. We hope that applying open-source data, techniques and solutions will decrease the time and efforts needed for rapid disaster and catastrophe management.

An Open-Source WebGIS Platform for Rapid Disaster Impact Assessment

Natural disaster impacts have increased worldwide in the past decades. Earthquake is one of the disasters that have been studied for real-time analysis and crisis management. Disaster-related losses have been examined by the damage extent of the houses, infrastructures, fatalities and injuries converted to financial losses. WebGIS technologies provide a wide range of solutions to map those damages, analyse data and publish the results. Open-Source tools and data have been widely used today because they stay free and facilitate access to data especially significant in developing countries. This research presents a WebGIS prototype using Open-Source Geo-Spatial technologies such as PostGIS, Geoserver, Geoexplorer and OpenStreetMap (OSM) to evaluate the rapid impact of naturally produced disasters for the total damages. For this purpose, expert knowledge, such as earthquake intensities and vulnerability inputs are imported into the system and the loss of the damage is rapidly estimated. This work is part of a project for catastrophe modeling based on OpenSource data and software. We hope that applying Open-Source knowledge and solutions will decrease the time and efforts needed for rapid disaster and catastrophe management.

Evaluation of an open-source collaborative web-GIS prototype in risk management with students

Over the past decades, advancements in web services and web-based geospatial technologies have led to increasing delivery, access and analysis of rich spatial information over the web. With the use of open access data and open-source technology, it has become possible for policy and decision makers to make more transparent and informed decisions. Under the framework of the CHANGES project, a prototype web-based collaborative decision support platform was developed for the evaluation and selection of risk management measures, mainly targeting flood and landslide hazards. The design of the conceptual framework was based on the initial observations obtained from field visits and stakeholders’ meetings at the case study areas of the project. A three-tier client–server architecture backed up by Boundless (OpenGeo) was applied with its client side development environment for rapid prototyping. This developed prototype was tested with university students to obtain feedback on the conceptual and technical aspects of the platform as well as to analyse how the application of interactive tools during an exercise could assist students in studying and understanding risk management. During the exercise, different roles (authorities, technicians, community) were assigned to each group of students for identification and selection of risk mitigation measures in a study area: Cucco village located in Malborghetto-Valbruna municipality of North-Eastern Italy. Data were collected by means of written feedback forms on specific aspects of the platform and the exercise. The subsequent analysis of the feedback reveals that students with previous experience in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) responded positively and showed interests in performing exercises with such kinds of interactive tools for learning, compared to the ones with fewer or no GIS experience. These results also show that the prototype is useful and supportive as a decision support tool in risk management while user-friendliness, interactivity and practical aspects of the platform could be further improved.