Information, Communication and Space Technology For Disaster Management
By: Dr. Fahim Arif Knowledge-based disaster management to be addressed by the WSIS as part digital divide Use of information, communication and space technology tools for disaster management should be promoted National capacities should be enhanced through establishment of enabling environment and regional cooperation Disaster management is a major issue related to development Plan of Action includes the promotion and use of ICTs to establish monitoring systems to forecast and monitor the impact of natural and man-made disasters – Disaster reduction should be incorporated with development agenda by all the countries – Measures should be taken to reduce the damages – Priority on pre-disaster preparation, planning and mitigation – ICST viewed as one of the tools for achieving the goals of the WSSD – Key targets include effective ICST applications in disaster management – Making pre-disaster preparation more practical – Vulnerability assessment and risk mapping – Mitigation, preparedness and response strategy – Disaster modelling and decision support tools – Monitoring and early warning – Supporting disaster response more efficiently – Emergency decision making – Affected area identification and damage estimation – Rescue and relief – Supporting more reasonable after disaster activities – Rehabilitation and reconstruction planning – Creating new economic opportunities Information for combating disasters Background information for vulnerability and impact estimation for disaster mitigation and response planning – Geographic, landuse, infrastructures, residential environment
– Demographic, economic and social – Historic Realtime information on warning signals of disasters – Earthquake – ground and seafloor monitoring, … – Tsunami and storm-surge - sea wave height monitoring – Windstorm and flood -- meteorological, hydrological & oceanographic parameters – Forest and grassland fire – doughtiness and hot spots – Volcano – Seismological /thermal signals Indirect information on major factors related to disasters – Draughtiness of vegetation and soil moisture -- Drought – Sea water temperature -- El Nino – flood and drought Realtime information for disaster damage assessment and response actions Educating the people Multi-media courseware on living with risks Penetrate disaster preparedness knowledge to community level – Distance-education and community e-centers – Public awareness building and guidance Emergency communication Hybrid terrestrial and space infrastructure – More robust communication systems in disaster prone area Fast deployable systems supporting field rescue/relief actions – Mostly satellite and terrestrial wireless – Audio, video, data, conferences, telemedicine , …