This special issue is part of a double special issue (Part A was published in the previous issue of this journal) dealing with the role of Geographic Information (GI) for Early Warning (EW) and Disaster Management (DM). In the editorial of Part A we gave an introduction to the topic focussing on initiatives from the EU and China and we have highlighted the importance of Digital Earth for EW and DM. We have also reflected on the outcome of some events organized by the guest editors which were important for the topic and for this special issue.
In the previous Introduction we also mentioned policy steps from several countries, mainly from China. But there are also some other very interesting approaches, such as European Union ones based on a higher level of policy development assisted by strong scientific influence. The latest examples are Council Conclusions on a Community framework on disaster prevention within the EU (2979th JUSTICE and HOME AFFAIRS Council meeting, Brussels, 30 November 2009). The Council of The European Union calls EC on Initial Actions:
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bring together existing private sector and public sector data and information on disasters and their social, economic and environmental impact, lessons learnt and best practices, with a view to providing policy-relevant information at European and national levels;
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identifying gaps and issues of comparability between national data collection systems and carry out studies on different methods of risk assessment with a view to providing guidance on methods and common definitions, taking into account systems such as the Clearing House Mechanism. The Clearing House Mechanism will be a web-based platform for the exchange of information contributing to the Shared Environmental Information System, the collaborative initiative by the EC and the European Environment Agency (EEA) to establish with the Member States an integrated and shared EU-wide environmental information system; and
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before the end of 2010, together with Member States develop Community guidelines, taking into account work at a national level on methods of hazard and risk mapping, assessments and analyses in order to facilitate such actions in Member States and to ensure a better comparability between Member States.
Others actions promote close cooperation between relevant research institutions and policy-makers, including official disaster management organizations, in order to enhance the transfer of knowledge from the research community to the policy level and to encourage the development of innovative technologies and methods; to consider potential priorities for relevant Community-funded research projects aimed at understanding the link between climate change and natural disasters, etc., developing methods for the efficient use of satellite images by policy makers amongst others, analyzing the consequences of building design and architecture in terms of risk factors and improving disaster prediction including through the use of appropriate technologies (e.g. remote sensing technologies).
All the above-mentioned actions will design complex approaches supporting disaster decision-making processes by complimentary research, technological, social, economic, and environmental aspects.
Part B of the special issue contains six papers. Staněk et al. address cartographic communication issues related to the emergency management (EM) support and give an overview of the practical use of maps within operational EM. This is followed by a structured list of discussions of map design modifications for improvement of identified cartographic communication. The last part of the paper is devoted to the experiences with testing of the adjustments within developed cartographic visualization systems for operational EM. The paper as a whole is a contribution to the development of adaptive mapping in EM situations.
The paper by Seppäenen and Virrantaus discusses all phases of EW and DM and points out which role geographic information and related methods play in all of these phases. The relevant GI methods are grouped into main categories – e.g. probability-based risk assessment – and are outlined and its usefulness is discussed. Furthermore, three significant case studies are presented to explain the importance of the GI methods more explicitly. In summary the paper clarifies the role and usability of various GI-supported methods for EW and DM impressively.
The paper by Guo et al. introduces the results of dynamic analysis on monitoring and assessing heavily impacted areas affected by the Wenchuan Earthquake disaster on 12 May 2008 using remote sensing data acquired in the past three years from 2008 to 2010. More than 400 images have been used to facilitate quick monitoring and evaluation of severely damaged areas. Results of the image analyses were forwarded on a timely basis to assist with consultative service and decision-making support, as well as being useful for supporting further work on environmental protection and reconstruction in damaged areas. Described results have been created in the project “Wenchuan Earthquake Disasters Monitoring” which was launched by the Chinese Academy of Sciences immediately after the disaster happened. As a whole, the paper shows the creation of a powerful system supporting “in action” approaches based on scientific support of decision makers.
Glabsch et al. present a low-cost precise differential GNSS-based sensor network for landslide monitoring and discuss challenges, possibilities, and prospects. Geodetic sensors and methods as GNSS traditionally play an important role especially for observing landslides within the framework of permanent monitoring systems. The new approach of this research mainly lies in using low-cost sensors arranged in a wireless sensor network. The results from practical tests show that this approach can be used very successfully for such applications.
Walter reports on the development of an EW information infrastructure using spatial web services technology. Geo Web Services standardized by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) play an important role in the Geo community. The Sensor Web-related standards are becoming very important and are applied here in the framework of a prototypical alarm and EW system for landslides. This research clearly proves that the self-describing interfaces and standardized services of the OGC's SWE initiative can be used to access measurement data of complex and specialized sensor systems with little previous knowledge and using just a web browser.
Zhang et al. summarize various assessment methods of vulnerability of hazard-affected bodies and created a fine spatial quantitative model to study the vulnerability of hazard-affected bodies by combining the refined spatial geographic data, land-use types of data, and defining fine spatial grid as the basic evaluation unit. Also, a new approach for evaluating of socio-economic factors and demographic elements was adopted. The proposed method was successfully applied in practical disaster planning for Deqing County and Jiaxing City, in Zhejiang Province China.