Methodology for making geographic information relevant to crisis management

Abstract

The following questions will be addressed in this contribution: 1. Spatial data for risk management - Risk or opportunity? 2. Is spatial data needed in risk management systems? 3. What is the use of spatial data in risk management system? 4. Is there a difference in the way a decision maker must think before, under and after? 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 Confronting Catastrophe, a GIS handbook: 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. © 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.