Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Disaster Management

Brian Tomaszewski

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781351034845
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Global Development Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Now in its second edition, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Disaster Management has been completely updated to take account of new developments in the field.

Using a hands-on approach grounded in relevant GIS and disaster management theory and practice, this textbook continues the tradition of the benchmark first edition, providing coverage of GIS fundamentals applied to disaster management. Real-life case studies demonstrate GIS concepts and their applicability to the full disaster management cycle. The learning-by-example approach helps readers see how GIS for disaster management operates at local, state, national, and international scales through government, the private sector, non?governmental organizations, and volunteer groups.

New in the second edition:

• a chapter on allied technologies that includes remote sensing, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), indoor navigation, and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS);
• thirteen new technical exercises that supplement theoretical and practical chapter discussions and fully reinforce concepts learned;
• enhanced boxed text and other pedagogical features to give readers even more practical advice;
• examination of new forms of world?wide disaster faced by society;
• discussion of new commercial and open-source GIS technology and techniques such as machine learning and the Internet of Things;
• new interviews with subject-matter and industry experts on GIS for disaster management in the US and abroad;
• new career advice on getting a first job in the industry.

Learned yet accessible, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Disaster Management continues to be a valuable teaching tool for undergraduate and graduate instructors in the disaster management and GIS fields, as well as disaster management and humanitarian professionals.

Please visit http://gisfordisastermanagement.com to view supplemental material such as slides and hands-on exercise video walkthroughs. This companion website offers valuable hands-on experience applying concepts to practice.

1

A Survey of GIS for Disaster Management

Chapter Objectives

Upon chapter completion, readers should be able to:

1. 1. understand the role of maps in disaster management;
2. 2. describe how maps provide geographic context for disaster management and recognize how geographic information systems (GIS) can be used for understanding geographic context;
3. 3. be familiar with the concept of situation awareness;
4. 4. discern the problems associated with the continued need for GIS in disaster management;
5. 5. recognize the opportunities that exist with continued awareness and advocacy of GIS and mapping for disaster management;
6. 6. understand the importance of spatial thinking in disaster-management practice.

Introduction

This book focuses on the application of GIS to disaster management. The book assumes no previous knowledge of GIS and little to no experience with disaster-management ideas or concepts. To develop your skills and understanding of the application of GIS to disaster management, through the course of this book, you will learn about:

1. (1) scientific principles of geographic data and information;
2. (2) how those principles apply to specific GIS software;
3. (3) what GIS, related mapping software, and allied technologies can and cannot do in terms of supporting disaster management practice;
4. (4) how GIS relates to various disaster-management cycle phases;
5. (5) ideas for keeping abreast of the ever-changing world of the application of GIS to disaster management.

In this chapter, a survey of GIS and disaster management is presented to get you thinking about some important concepts followed by specific examples on the many ways in which GIS and mapping relate to disaster management. This chapter, like the rest of the book, also includes supplemental material such as slides and hands-on exercise video walkthroughs available through the book’s companion website (gisfordisastermanagement.com) you can use to get hands-on experience with applying concepts to actual practice. A hands-on exercise is also provided at the end of this chapter that will reinforce skills in examining how disaster-management maps provide geographic context.

GIS and Geographical Context

GISs have evolved into critical decision support and information management devices for all aspects of disaster management (National Research Council 2007; Thomas 2018). This support and information management role comes primarily, although not exclusively, through the ability of a GIS to represent certain aspects of a disaster situation via maps. Maps in general have a long-standing role in disaster management – long before the development of computerized GIS and digital data in general (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 A 1969 tracking map of Hurricane Camille. (Source: US Department of Commerce 1969, www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/storm_wallets/atlantic/atl1969-prelim/camille/TCR-1969Camille.pdf.)

As in many domains such as engineering, urban planning, and the military, maps serve a fundamental purpose for understanding the geographical context of a disaster. The geographical context of a disaster can be thought of much like a news reporter asking for the basic “who, what, where, why, and how” aspects of a disaster situation (Tomaszewski and MacEachren 2012). First and foremost, maps can tell us the “where” aspect of a disaster – where are buildings damaged, where are roads open for evacuation, where are the areas that are most susceptible to flooding impacts, where should supplies be stationed for planning purposes. For many users of mapping tools in disaster management, the “where” aspect of maps is the most important function a map can serve. We will see many examples of the “where” aspect of mapping in the other parts of this book and, ideally, you will learn how to create basic maps that can show where things are happening in a disaster. “Who” type disaster questions that can be addressed with maps can be created from census data that can visualize population characteristics.

Additionally, it is important to consider that maps can also be used for deeper interpretation and reasoning of a disaster beyond simply showing where things are located.

For example, maps are also important for showing “what” is happening in a disaster and when it is happening. The “what” and “when” aspects of a map are particularly essential for showing processes during a disaster. As seen in Figure 1.1, a hurricane-tracking map is used to show the weather categories (hurricane, tropical depression, storm) of the hurricane. This is a classic example of a map being used to show “what” is happening (and where it is happening), and these types of maps are still very much used today. Other ideas about the “what” and “when” aspects of maps in terms of disaster-management activities to get you thinking beyond the “where” aspect of maps include:

• What is the extent of the flood?
• What are the number of people impacted by the disaster?
• What are the environmental processes at work in an area that are needed for mitigating the effects of a storm surge?
• What is the status of the movement of relief supplies?
• What resources are available for disaster-planning purposes?

The last two aspects of map use in disaster management are at a much deeper level and show how maps can facilitate disaster-management decision-making and reasoning. This involves the use of maps to understand “how” and “why” about a disaster condition or situation. The following are representative examples of “how” and “why” questions for disaster situations that maps can help answer:

• How did an area become vulnerable to a disaster?
• Why were the impacts from a disaster greater in one area compared to another?
• How well will a disaster plan actually work in practice?
• Why were there problems with the disaster response?
• How can the effects of a natural hazard best be mitigated in a physical environment?
• Why was recovery in one area slower than in another area?

Understanding the how and why about a disaster often involves a type of interaction process between the map reader and the map itself (MacEachren 1995). For example, understanding and interpreting the symbols, colors, and other graphical aspects of a map (which are discussed in Chapter 2) to develop insight, reason, and make decisions. Modern GISs are key to this map user–map interaction process as GIS allows for dynamic interaction with a map and its data. For example, data layers can be quickly turned on and off or reordered for making comparisons to understand how a disaster evolved. Basic interactions such as panning and zooming allow areas of interest to be quickly viewed. Interactive querying capabilities allow for quick access to information that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. Map projections can be “projected on the fly” to incorporate and share data in varying formats with other disaster-management teams. In many cases this can allow for greater understanding of a situation, swifter interpretation, and better, more informed decision-making. Statistical data displays can be quickly changed to reformat data and modify styling such as data class breaks and their color for reinterpretation of data (Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2 Using GIS to manipulate data display. (Maps created by Brian Tomaszewski.)

In Figure 1.2, total counts of people aged 65–69 are shown in US counties. Such a map could be used for understanding where vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, are located for disaster-planning purposes. Using GIS, the statistical display of the data class breaks can be quickly and easily manipulated. Note the top map, which assigns data observations to data class breaks based on equal numerical ranges (known as an equal interval classification, discussed in Chapter 2), shows data outliers such as large population centers. The bottom map, which displays equal numbers of data observations per data class break (in this case, counties that are displayed using a quantile classification, discussed in Chapter 2), giv...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Technical Exercise Notes
• 1 A Survey of GIS for Disaster Management
• 2 Fundamentals of Geographic Information and Maps
• 4 Geographic Information Systems and Allied Technologies
• 5 Disaster Management and Geographic Information Systems
• 6 Geographic Information Systems and Disaster Planning and Preparedness
• 7 Geographic Information Systems and Disaster Response
• 8 Geographic Information Systems and Disaster Recovery
• 9 Geographic Information Systems and Disaster Mitigation
• 10 Special Topics, Future Technology, Professional Career Options, and Geographic Information Systems Trends
• Index