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Due to organizational and technological barriers, actors involved in the management of natural or man-made risks cannot cooperate efficiently. In an attempt to solve some of these problems, the European Commission has made “Improving risk management” one of its strategic objectives of the IST program. The integrated project Orchestra is one of the projects that recently started in this area. The main goal of Orchestra is to design and implement an open service oriented software architecture that will improve the interoperability among actors involved in multi-risk management. In 2 Alessandro Annoni, Lars Bernard, John Douglas, Joseph Greenwood et al this paper we will describe the goals of Orchestra and explain some of the key characteristics of the project. These are:

The recent upgrading of laser scanning devices has led to a set of new surveying techniques for civil engineering and environmental analysis.

The terrestrial laser scanner allows complete and dense 3D digital models of the surface of any object to be reconstructed. This is very useful for natural hazards and risk assessment where morphological investigation is a starting point to evaluate stability properties. In the case of disaster management, a 3D model is useful to acquire and monitor emergency situations. Field acquisitions, with laser scanner devices are, in addition, very fast and they are made in safe conditions.

However, particular attention must be paid during the acquisition, processing and modeling phases.

An application example of these new surveying techniques in disaster management is shown.

Amongst the methods of gathering geo-information inter alia for disaster management purposes, the use of satellites is a particularly interesting one in view of their global coverage. In this area a number of recent interesting developments have taken place, such as the establishment of a Charter on Space and Major Disasters, and the rapidly evolving plans for GMES and GEOSS.

These developments raise a number of legal issues, related to state responsibility, state liability, and the respective roles of intergovernmental organizations and commercial and/or private entities in this regard. These issues cannot be easily solved, since the international legal environment for the use of space data for disaster management purposes from the other end offers a rather fragmented picture. Some rules and principles exist on the international level, often however not well-defined and leaving room for conflicting interpretations. Others are confined to certain national territories, certain types of activities or even certain types of natural or legal persons. In still other cases no specific rules or principles can be found to be applicable at all.

The management and mitigation of natural and man-induced risks is a topic of growing worldwide concern, especially in regions where population densities and the frequency of extreme events are increasing. Risk management, being a highly multidisciplinary activity, has many facets that include the advancement of thematic and applied research, the integration and deployment of new and existing technologies, the provision of usable services for the citizens, and the need to adequately consider aspects of risk perception and communication. The EC is actively supporting research on risk management through out its programs for Research and Technological Development. The availability of high quality, rapidly accessible and secure geo-information is the basis of sound decision making for risk management and disaster prevention In particular, scientific advances in the field of information and communication technology have contributed to interoperability and harmonization of geo-spatial information, and the integration of in situ sensor networks and satellite communication for disaster alert systems.

In the event of a natural or terrorist disaster, the key to rescue and recovery operations is timely information presented in standardized data formats. The quicker the response, the higher the likelihood that lives would be saved and property damage would be minimized. Geospatial information should also be tailored to the needs of first responders. The addition of a multi-band Airborne Passive Microwave Radiometry system to existing optical remote sensing solutions with a wireless data downlink capability has an enormous potential for preventing or assisting in disaster operations. In crisis mode, this proven technology can deliver critical geospatial updates to assist first responders. Timely soil moisture and depth to water table maps over large areas can be created to monitor water barriers, to manage dangerously high water tables, and to prevent flooding disasters.

Acknowledging the disastrous implications of Climate Change for socioeconomic development, the public-private institute of the Geomatics Busines Park has since 2002 worked on a new concept coined Extreme Events Engineering and Monitoring (EEEM). In EEEM, the word ‘Engineering’ stands for all types of logic reasoning and activities as long as these help people to firmly reduce their vulnerability to extreme events.

We see EEEM as a ‘bi-polar’ concept, aiming to deeply integrate a long chain of analyses and activities. On the ‘high end’ of the EEEM chain, Earth Observation plays an important role. Down at the ‘lower end’, EEEM firmly rests in the mud in the form of grass roots based evacuation and relief plans as well as long term land use improvements.

Between both poles of the EEEM chain, the so-called Integrated Vulnerability Analysis (IVA) forms the central defence strategy against this ‘axis of peril’.

Vietnam is very vulnerable for natural disasters such as flooding, especially during such extreme events as overflowing rivers and excessive local rainfall during typhoons. This paper describes an initial application of EEEM at the vulnerable city of Hue, which was struck in 1999 by extremely heavy rainfall and extensive flooding of the Perfume River.

In case of disaster recovery an enormous information flow arises between administrative and operational groups, which during ‘times of peace’ would not exist in this form, or if so, at a much more modest scale. This complex structure of administrative tiers and operational services is served by as many, or perhaps even a larger number of (geo) information systems. The use of geo information and geographic information systems for combining, analyzing and visualizing data at this point has not taken sufficient root in the disaster recovery structure. If geo information is used at all, it is within the individual organization, and often it is not possible to share data with other partners in the chain.

TopoSys GmbH manufactures and operates high-end fiber based airborne Lidar sensor systems which also include a for spectral optical line scanner. Airborne Lidar sensor systems are capable of playing a dominant role at data acquisition for disaster prevention and disaster management, especially the systems of TopoSys which focus on high precise, high dense mapping.

Obviously disaster management could only be as good as the information it has got for its decisions. The data need to be on-time, precise, accurate and actual. The presentation shows concepts how to use Lidar sensor systems for on-time data acquisition. Basic products like high resolution RGB and CIR ortho images or elevation models and their usage for disaster management are being presented as well as derived products like shore line or vectorized flooded areas. The sketch of a disaster data acquisition plan (DDAP) is shown which integrates real-time data acquisition e.g. for the use for police, rescue teams or relief organizations and post processed data for e.g. insurances, services or activities for prevention.

In addition to concepts for data acquisition for disaster management, ideas for data acquisition for disaster prevention like regular survey and change monitoring of critical areas are being presented.

A view on the future is also given how airborne Lidar sensor systems will be developed further to better serve the needs of efficient autonomous on-time data collection.

The following questions will be addressed in this contribution:

Alan Leidner is the chief of Citywide GIS, New York City Department. He has experience from the 9 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre and says in the introduction to “No other technology allows for the visualisation of an emergency or disaster situation as effectively as GIS. By placing the accurate physical geography of disaster event on a computer monitor, and then align other relevant features, events, conditions or threats with that geography, GIS lets police, fire, medical and managerial personnel make decisions based on the data they can see and judge for themselves. This visualised information can be of critical relevance to a disaster manager: the size and direction of wildfire perimeters, the location of broken levees or of hazardous chemical spill release points, or the whereabouts of surviving victims inside a bombed building. GIS can be a matter of life and death.”

The tasks and responsibilities of the ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water management in the Netherlands are focused on water management (water quality and water quantity) and traffic and transport over waterways, roads, rail and in the air. In the past several calamities have taken place in those sectors: heavy car collisions due to intense fog nearby the city of Breda (1972, 1990), pollution of Rhinewater due to fire in Sandozplant (1986), airplane crashes near Schiphol and Eindhoven (1994, 1995), derailment of chloride trains in Delfzijl and Kijfhoek (2000, 1986), river floods (1993, 1995), and recently some dike collapses due to heavy drought and rain (2003, 2004). Besides managing these large(r) calamities daily traffic incident management along the main roads and waterways is a major task of the Ministry as well. At all those occasions the need for (spatial) information and supporting information systems is large. That need has only grown because the attention has also shifted to the proactive and preventive phase in the calamity control and incident management.