Dealing with Disasters: GIS for Emergency Management

by Ryan Lanclos (Editor), Matt Artz (Editor)

Overview

Discover a modern approach to understanding threats and hazards that are more complex, costly, and devastating than ever before.

Agencies around the world rely on geographic information systems (GIS) every day to plan for and mitigate complicated threats and hazards and coordinate emergency response and recovery efforts. Location intelligence provides the kind of deep, real-time data insights needed for managers, directors, and other decision-makers to analyze risk, gain situational awareness, and manage tomorrow’s emergencies.

Dealing with Disasters: GIS for Emergency Management explores a collection of real-life case studies about emergency management agencies successfully using GIS for real and potential hazards. Chapters are laid out to explore three primary areas of disaster management:

• Preparedness: To effectively reduce risks, emergency management professionals must incorporate real-time data, big data, and other critical data feeds into their analysis. Learn how organizations spanning from Arizona to Taiwan use data-driven insights to effectively prepare for worst-case scenarios. 
• Response: Emergency management professionals must become more agile and informed at all points during response efforts. Find out how the US National Park Service, the Puerto Rico Emergency Operations Center, and others have successfully responded to growing threats that require agility and effective communication to save lives and property.
• Recovery: Recovery efforts can take years, and it's critical to avoid missteps that delay progress. See how tools like drones help refugees; imagery helps insurance companies; and maps help post-tornado efforts while aiding in prioritizing work and delivering on every recovery dollar invested in a community.

Each of the three themed parts also includes a "how to get started" section that provides ideas, strategies, tools, and actions to help jump-start your own use of GIS for emergency management, and an index organized by disaster type allows you to quickly learn or refresh yourself on GIS implementation. A collection of online resources, including additional stories, videos, new ideas and concepts, and downloadable tools and content, complements this book. Use Dealing with Disasters: GIS for Emergency Management as a guide for strategizing against and surviving the emergencies that befall communities.

Introduction by Martin O'Malley, former governor of Maryland, former mayor of Baltimore, and author of Smarter Government: How to Govern for Results in the Information Age (Esri Press, 2019).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589486393
Publisher:	Esri Press
Publication date:	04/27/2021
Series:	Applying GIS , #2
Pages:	150
Sales rank:	517,662
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Ryan Lanclos is the Director of Public Safety Solutions at Esri where he is responsible for strategic initiatives across public safety and national security. He serves as Esri’s subject matter expert on GIS for emergency management and humanitarian response, and he leads Esri’s Disaster Response Program (DRP) that provides 24x7 GIS support to organizations during disasters.

Matt Artz is a principal content strategist for Esri Press.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

How to use this book ix

Part 1 Disaster Preparedness 1

Ensuring tornado warnings work when it matters most 3

Tuscaloosa County Emergency Management Agency, Alabama

3D mapping helps prepare for flood events 9

National Science and Technology Center tor Disaster Reduction, Taiwan

Counties organize evacuations well in advance 15

US Army Corps of Engineers, New York District

Drone imagery helps stay crisis-ready despite growth 23

North Central Texas Emergency Communication District

Simulating a nuclear disaster 28

Lithuanian Fire and Rescue Department

Fire district uses apps to prepare for emergencies 35

Northwest Fire District, Tucson, Arizona

Getting started with GIS 42

Part 2 Disaster Response 51

Tracking coronavirus with real-time dashboards 53

Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering

Apps transform hurricane response 61

Geographic Mapping Technologies, Corp 61

GIS supports response to Hurricane Irma 71

City of Fort Louderdale, Florida

Scientists, emergency responders put drones to work 80

Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue

Extending GIS in the field for resource advising 86

Resource Advisors

Getting started with GIS 94

Part 3 Disaster Recovery 101

Relief workers use drone imagery to help refugees 103

International Organization for Migration

The eye after the hurricane 109

The National Insurance Crime Bureau and a coalition of geospatial organizations

After a disaster, imagery gives insurance companies a clear picture 117

Travelers Insurance

Authorities map and model damage from deadly Alabama tornadoes 122

Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Weather Service, and Alabama Law Enforcement Agency 122

Mapping the needs of people impacted by deadly tornadoes 130

Lee County Emergency Operations Center and the Alabama Fire College

Getting started with GIS 136

Contributors 139