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GIS to Support Natural Disaster Management

Submitted by Aaron Ciaghi on June 1, 2011 - 08:55
Revision #12Recommend a SolutionFork
Trentino, Italy
Overlapping different geographic datasets that represent different indexes (such as hydrographic information, elevation, stiffness of the soil, etc.) can provide a complete view of a territory that can be used to predict the occurrence of natural disasters.

Furthermore, dealing with a natural emergency always requires some improvisation. However, being able to preventively deploy emergency vehicles and equipment can significantly improve the response time of civil protection agents. This applies especially to mountainous areas like Trentino, where roads are seriously limited by geographic features.

Example: 
Let's suppose that we can aggregate different indexes to determine that 3 areas have a high risk of natural disasters occurring (e.g. avalanche). We can use the system to place emergency vehicles in advance knowing the layout of the roads and therefore more quickly respond in case the emergency arises. 

For instance, if we have data about elevation and hydrological data, we can infer a risk factor by putting together the two values (the higher the values, the riskier the area). The dataset to solve this problem contains such data for a risky area in Trentino, Italy.

Constraints: 
This project is applicable worldwide, provided that digital elevation information is available. Such data will be made available to the interested volunteers via this website and directly (on physical support) on June 4th.
Extra Credit: 
The model can be extended by adding predictive algorithms to estimate, for example, the amount of water that could affect an area. This could be further extended to quantify different categories of risk (e.g., nuclear, environmental, chemical, ...).
Similar Projects and Resources: 

A dataset of elevation and hydrology data is available at the following link: 

Similar projects deal with data acquisition and can be found at the following links:

Datasets will be made available to the participants by the Civil Protection service of the Autonomous Province of Trento.

Next Steps and Sustainability: 
This solution will be tested on the territory of the Province of Trento, Italy by conducting a dedicated data collection campaign. The plan is to apply it also in environments characterized by scarcity of infrastructures such as developing countries.

Comments

PROVINCIA AUTONOMA DI TRENTO

SERVIZIO ANTINCENDI E PROTEZIONE CIVILE

SCUOLA PROVINCIALE ANTINCENDI

ALESSANDRO GALVAGNI Jun 01, 2011

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