Geo-information at the Belgian federal crisis centre

Abstract

The Federal Crisis Centre in Belgium was created in 1988 in the aftermath of a series of tragic events during the 80's. Its mission is to manage crisis situations at national level: floods, nuclear incidents, chemical pollutions, major strikes, risks for food chains, terrorist threats etc. It consists of 60 professionals, fulfilling their mission 24h a day, offering to partners a high tech and ready to use environment for crisis management. The Crisis Center introduced GIS-technology in the early 90's mainly as a mapping tool to help decision-makers. Today, the aim of Gis is to collect and maintain as many critical data's as possible, normalized and integrated in a system that is continuous, homogenous and regularly updated. This allows us to produce thematic maps as well as case studies showing spatial analyses, disaster consequences, risk distribution for our partners dealing with crisis management. Our strategy regarding Geo-information technologies can be summarized as follow: autonomy in management of base maps, setup of Crisis databases where geographical objects are linked to external databases, easy to use customized mapping functions for our own needs, partnerships with other bodies in order to make data exchanges easier especially with local authorities. © 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.