Use of Geographic Data in Natural Disasters Essay -- Natural Disaster

Missing Figures The use of geographic data in the field of preventing and mitigating congenital disasters remains a pioneering activity. However the circulation of the engineering science is still hindered by many issues such as the difficulty in obtaining the appropriate raw data, the lack of effective graphical user interfaces, the intricacy of prophetical models and the expense of digitisation (Carrara et al., 1999). Natural disasters are becoming more frequent around the world, as seen in figure 1, which shows that in 1975 there were approximately 50 disasters reported, compared to approximately 400 being reported in 2010. They are a damaging phenomenon upon the Earths citizens and the physical environment, but with the use of geographic data, essential disasters such as floods, earthquak es, cyclones and landslides can be monitored and mapped to ensure a successful disaster response strategy can be put in spot to ensure we can protect people and the environment as much as possible. The success of these strategies depends upon access to real-time spatial information that can be used effectively by the Geomatics Industry, governments, relief agencies among others to provide a quick response to the disaster areas (Herold et al., 2005). Kunkel et al. (1999) suggest that there is strong scientific evidence of an enlarge in extreme precipitation events in particular regions, whilst water shortages are becoming more apparent in other regions, which indicates that weather driven natural disasters will surely become more frequent, resulting in the use of Geogr... ...97) Managing the natural disasters from space technology inputs. Acta Astronautica, 40.Kunkel, K.E., Easterling, D.R., Andsager, K. (1999) Long-Term Trends in Extreme Precipitation Events over the abutting Un ited States and Canada. J. Climate, 12.Li, Q. and Li, D. (1999) Proceedings of the International Symposium on Digital Earth Science Press. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences.National look Council (1995) The global positioning system a shared national asset recommendations for technical improvements and enhancements. National Academy of Public AdministrationRaheja, N., Ojha, R. and Mallik, S. (Undated) GIS Development Role of Internet-based GIS in effective natural disaster management. Online Available from http//www.gisdevelopment.net/technology/gis/techgi0030pf.htm