The Role of GIS and Public Awareness for Disaster Management

An increasing number of disasters (natural and man-made) with a large number of victims and significant social and economical losses are observed in the past few years. Although particular events can always be attributed to fate, it is improving the disaster management that have to contribute to decreasing damages and ensuring proper care for citizens in affected areas. Some of the lessons learned in the last several years give clear indications that the availability, management and presentation of geo-information play a critical role in disaster management. However, all the management techniques that are being developed are understood by, and confined to the intellectual community and hence lack mass participation. Awareness of the disasters is the only effective way in which one can bring about mass participation. Hence, any disaster management is successful only when the general public has some awareness about the disaster. In the design of such awareness program, intelligent mapping through analysis and data sharing also plays a very vital role. The analytical capabilities of GIS support all aspects of disaster management: planning, response and recovery, and records management. The proposed GIS based awareness program in this paper would improve the currently practiced disaster management programs and if implemented, would result in a proper dosage of awareness and caution to the general public, which in turn would help to cope with the dangerous activities of disasters in future.