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Effective warning services enable people to take actions in order to reduce life losses and fear, speeds up recovery and prevent oncoming hazards caused by various disasters. The proposed platform integrates different IT technologies with mobile devices in order to achieve smooth and undistracted collaboration among all rescue units and citizens involved in emergency situations.

In November 2002 a simulated earthquake damage assessment scenario for the Greater Vancouver Region was visualized using GeoServNet. GeoServNet is web-based GIS software developed by York University GeoICT Lab with unique functionality of online 3D visualization and 3D fly. We tested our software in an earthquake simulation exercise that included a simulated Shakemap. Shakemaps are representations of ground motions recorded and extrapolated from knowledge of surface soil conditions. The Geological Survey of Canada is considering applying this technique to Canadian cities at risk. GeoServNet has been used for the demonstration of the utility of Shakemaps and how it could be used in an emergency response scenario. The constructed visual scenarios and information databases is crucial for the purpose of Disaster Management and Emergency Response. Most of currently available tools that are used for disaster management are focusing on the temporal component of the four phases of disaster management leaving an obvious gap in dealing with the spatial element particularly in visualizing disaster and emergency information. This study was conducted as a part of a federal project funded by the former Canadian Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness (OCIPEP), recently known as the Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (PSEPC). In this study, federal, regional and local authorities along with industry and academic research institutions together coordinated information exchange in a collaborative manner. Results obtained from this project showed that visualization of earthquake disaster scenario was effective and near real time using GeoServNet.

M3Flood (Monitoring, Managing, Mitigating) is born from the European project MUSHROOM. The aim of the project was to develop a software product and relative services which can provide a complete, integrated, modular and scalable support, interoperable with external tools and data, to the organizations responsible for managing flood emergencies. The two case studies (in Italy and Spain) have shown the strength of the systems in two directions: 1) applicability of the system in both phases risk forecasting and management and 2) flexibility of the system with respect to various components.

The developed software and technical complex represents a mobile working place designed to support the work of radiation safety experts in case of emergencies, when leaving for the place of accident. It comprises required databases on normative documents in the radiation safety area; enquiry databases on objects, the personnel and equipment of emergency-rescue teams (ERT) from FAAE of Russia; the bank of electronic maps; computer systems for operative forecast and radiation environment measurement; the system to define geographical coordinates as well as a wide set of communication links to accept and transfer the data.

The software and technical complex is implemented on the base of a portable IBM-compatible computer. The technical complex is also equipped by a dose rate sensor to run field radiation measurements. Geographical reference to the dose rate measurements is performed via GPS-receiver.

Basic objectives solved by tools of the present mobile complex are as follows - information and analytical support for radiation safety experts, express simulation of radiation environment in the place of accident accompanying by radionuclide release, on-site dose rate measurement and retrieval of data on electronic maps, preparation of on-line required documents, forecasts and recommendations, operative communication and data transfer provision for RF FAAE crisis centers.

In Turkey, mitigation works have been given more importance since the 1999 Gulf earthquake. The first drafted projects put forth for Istanbul are the seismic microzonation and earthquake risk assessment projects. However, the fundamental plan which provided a ground for thorough assessment deducted from the mentioned projects as well as a road-map for mitigation is the Earthquake Master Plan. YTU (Yildiz Technical University) settlement and urban planning team have been faced some difficulties for risk assessment and priorities, during the IEMP (Istanbul Earthquake Master Plan) project. Therefore, some processes related to spatial decisions such as definition of priority areas were applied just for highly macro level. Risk priority areas could not be determined due to the lack of necessary information. The team has developed a new zoning approach for risk zoning based on density, pattern and other properties according to the requirements of previous projects with the contribution of BU (Boğaziçi University) project team.

In this paper, existing GIS contents of risk maps and other information as the most essential component of the mitigation phase of disaster management, new zoning approach developed by YTU-BU teams during the IEMP project and possible results are presented.

Natural disasters are inevitable and it is impossible to fully recoup the damage caused by the disasters. But to some extent it is possible to minimize the potential risk by developing early warning strategies for disasters, prepare and implement developmental plans to provide resilience to such disasters and to help in rehabilitation and post disaster reduction. Uncontrolled forest fires have adversely affected the local landscape and economy. Climatic, phenology variations and topography, apart from local factors are some of the main causes of frequent occurrence of wild forest fires in Garhwal Himalayas. Understanding the important of forest in the national economy (12% of global plant wealth), conservation of environment and biodiversity, Forest Survey of India(FSI) as a central monitoring agency is assessing and estimating the forest resources in a two years cycle. India is one of the few countries in the world to carry out the forest cover assessment and mapping using satellite data in a two years cycle period. Keeping in view the role of forest in national development, a Central Sector scheme has been implemented that includes- development of Early Warning system for forest fires, mapping of forest fire affected areas, development of a fire danger rating system, monitoring the impact of the scheme and its evaluation, identification and mapping of all fire prone areas, compilation and analysis of data-base on forest fire damage, development and installation of ‘Fire Danger Rating System’ and ‘Fire Forecasting System’. The other measures include building up a strong communication network between the monitoring station and fire suppression teams, effective transportation, watch towers, Fire line creation and maintenance, creation of water harvesting structures, fire management plans, any other technological innovation, assistance to JFM(Joint Forest Management Committees),awareness, training and research. Remote sensing and GIS technology could be effectively used in fire risk zonation. The technology has proved to be a valuable tool in identifying different fire risk zones based on appropriate parameters such as fuel load, slope, aspect, altitude, drainage, distance from roads and settlements. The approach followed for broad based forest type classification in the study was helpful in identifying different forest types available in the area. Fuel load, slope degree, aspect, elevation, drainage, roads and settlement layers were assigned different weight ages depending upon their impact, in identification of fire risk zones. This was followed by ground verification of the generated fire risk zone maps and their comparison with incidences of forest fire in previous years. The response time to disaster relief was calculated based on the friction offered by slope, altitude and other factors. Thus, high to low fire risk zones can be identified and suitable management strategy for controlling the disaster can be prioritized in this region.

This paper describes the results achieved within the framework of the national research project Reduction of the Seismic Vulnerability of Infrastructural Systems and Physical Environment, sponsored by the GNDT (Italian National Group for Defense Against Earthquakes), which is a body of the INGV (Italian Geophysic and Volcanology National Institute).

The project, which involved several Universities around Italy under the coordination of Prof. Michele Calvi of the University of Pavia, was carried out over three years and has been just completed in July 2004.

The aim of the project was to study the problems related to the seismic vulnerability assessment both of the physical environment and the infrastructural systems, to develop new techniques and tools, or improve the existing ones, to provide an efficient reduction of the risk.

One of the products of the project is the Web GIS, described in this paper, which has been applied to a test area in the South of Italy which in the past has suffered high seismic level events, to prove its efficiency and to examine the possibility of its implementation at national level.

A platform for geospatial hazard and risk information system, comprising graphical and numerical geospatial data, aerial and satellite images, georeferenced thematic data, and real time monitoring feeds is being developed by the Research Network on Natural Hazards at ETH Zurich (HazNETH). It will allow researchers to build efficient systems for handling, pre-processing, and analyzing the existing large and variable datasets from different natural hazard phenomena as well as different natural environments in the Swiss region. The final product will be a geospatial hazard information system.

Three main steps will be followed in order to create this information system: the spatial database development, an integrated hazard procedure design, and a web enabled data query and visualization tool set. The geospatial database including the entire set of natural hazards phenomena occurring in an alpine valley will offer a platform to study existing hazard assessment methods and will allow the analysis and combination of various hazard parameters in relationship to phenomena. The final application based on the concept of Atlas Information Systems (AIS), will be used as an additional tool for risk and emergency assessment as well as for planning and decision making purposes.

Within this paper we examine the use of explorative spatial analysis methods to enhance the calculation and representation of an emergency risk assessment for the Finnish fire and rescue services in the metropolitan area of the Finnish capital Helsinki (including Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen). Some of these methods are available in existing GIS (Geographic Information System) software. Within the strategic levels of planning and management, improvements in the identification of high or low risk areas can assist the emergency preparedness planning and resource evaluation. To enhance the determination of a risk area we visualize the spatial distribution of phenomena like population distribution, building types, workspace distribution etc. and their relevance to the emergency services. In this paper we examine the relation between population density distribution and incident density. To visualize potential variables indicating risk areas we use the third dimension. The results of the paper show that by developing explorative visualizations one can enhance the process of finding and integrating these variables into risk analysis. Within this paper we suggest innovative types of maps as tools for decision makers, which can be used to attract the public to participate in planning procedures.

Today, many countries operate national near-real-time water level or river discharge transmission schemes. Increasingly, countries also publish this data online, typically by way of web sites of their national hydrological services (NHS). Though this is a major step forward, from a global perspective the diversity of data sources is still quite heterogeneous. Consequently, it still remains a tedious task to draw together all information needed for global assessments and models. Here GRDC aims at providing an additional service, called Global Terrestrial Network for River Discharge (GTN-R). The basic idea of the GTN-R project is to draw together the already available heterogeneous information on near real time river discharge data provided by individual National Hydrological Services and redistribute it in a harmonized way. GRDC has identified a priority network of 377 river discharge reference stations that constitute the first application network for GTN-R. The core of GTN-R is a software that collects near-real-time (NRT)-discharge data from distributed servers in the internet, harmonizes and summarizes it, and makes it available again in one standard format via a FTP-server. On the mid to long term, it will be necessary to overcome such tedious approaches and to arrive at internationally agreed standards for the exchange of metadata and data on measurements of geophysical and biogeochemical processes in general.