1 / 13

Information Policy Considerations in Natural Disasters

This article discusses the role of information policy in the disaster management cycle, including information needs, suppliers, and the benefits and drawbacks of various sensors. It also explores what we want in information policy and the existing policies in place.

nathanbbrown
Download Presentation

Information Policy Considerations in Natural Disasters

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Information Policy Considerations in Natural Disasters Ray A. Williamson Senior Advisor Secure World Foundation

  2. Outline • Disaster management cycle • Information needs for the cycle • Information suppliers • Benefits and drawbacks of sensors • What do we want in information policy? • What sorts of information policies do we have? 2

  3. Information Policy Has A Role Throughout Source: http://pre-drp.org/about-2/disaster-management-cycle

  4. Information Needs for Response • Immediately following a disaster, need for • Accurate street maps • Assessment of conditions in affected areas • Blocked streets • Extent of flooding • Location of collapsed buildings • Functioning cell towers • Where are the people and what is their condition? • Victims • First responders • Accurate information needs to be delivered quickly 4

  5. Recovery & Rebuilding • Speed of information delivery is less critical • Periodic revisit to assess progress • Which areas still need assistance • Progress on rebuilding 5

  6. Mitigation & Preparation • Emphasis on training and capacity building • Development of disaster models • E.g., flood plain maps, earthquake-prone areas 6

  7. Information Suppliers • Government • Satellite • Airborne sensors • Commercial companies • Airborne sensors • Satellite • Individuals • Smart phones • Tablets 7

  8. What Can Satellite Systems Do…Or Not? • Advantages • Synoptic view • Repeatability • Disadvantages • Coverage • Resolution • Lack of timeliness of information delivery • Cloudcover (for electro-optical systems) • Complexity of interpretation (for radar) 8

  9. Airborne Systems • Advantages • Can be deployed quickly to specific region • Very high resolution (cm sharpness) • Variety of sensors • Photographic • Lidar • SAR • Fly below clouds • Disadvantages • Lack synoptic view • Lack uniform landscape illumination 9

  10. Smart Phones, Tablets • Advantages • Portable • “On the scene” • Very high resolution • Very timely information • Photo, voice, text together • Disadvantages • Very limited geographical scope • Depend on local communication links 10

  11. What Do We Want in an Information Policy? • For response, ability to deliver accurate information of affected site quickly and efficiently • Satellites only provide data; information must be supplied by value-added entity • Ability to share information across entities • Mechanisms to validate crowdsourced information 11

  12. What Information Policies Do We Have? • Patchwork of policies, but moving in direction of open data policy, especially for response phase and for data supplied by governments. • Open data policy implies free or very low-cost data and ability to share freely • Still, licensing restrictions on data from private suppliers reduces flexibility in dealing with natural disasters, especially in the recover and rebuilding phases. 12

  13. Thanks! Questions? 13

More Related