METHODS AND APPLICATIONS IN ADDRESSING INFORMATION NEEDS IN HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCIES

Association of American Geographers Conference 16 April 2010 – Washington DC

GIS 2.0, the Disaster Cycle, and Implications for

Humanitarian Knowledge Management

Joshua S. CampbellHumanitarian Information Unit

University of Kansas

Session Goal

During humanitarian emergencies, there is a need for different levels of information depending on the type and intensity of the emergency

As the emergency develops, information needs change from recovery to restoration 1-3 days: immediate description 10 days: contextualization Long-term: trends, models, managing, rebuilding

Questions…

How does the disaster cycle impact the type of geospatial information and analysis needed?

How do we utilize new geospatial toolkits, the Internet, and mobile technology?

How do we leverage existing work?

Where we are

Existing WebGIS best suited for contextual understanding and scenario/trend analysis

Citizens as Sensors: Mobile phones and SMS

Collaborative Mapping: Open Street Map

Optimum system combines all three

System Design

Get the right information in the right format at the right time

Geospatial data & robust cyberinfrastructure

Leverages previous work

NeoGeography

Began as an expression of Web 2.0 applied to maps AJAX, JavaScript APIs, RSS Craigslist mashup / Chicago Crime Maps *

Democratization of geographic tools

Web Developers discovered Geography…

What about Geographers harnessing the Web?

What is Web 2.0?

“a transformative force that’s compelling

companies across all industries towards a new way of doing business characterized by harnessing collective intelligence, openness, and network effects”

--Tim O’Reilly

What is a GIS?

A digital representation of the earth, structured to support analysis (Dobson, 2007)

Automated systems for the collection, storage, retrieval, analysis, and display of spatial data (Clarke, 1995)

Should also include dissemination

Composed on software, hardware, and people

GIS 2.0: A Reformulation

Free and Open Source Software

Web 2.0 philosophy collective intelligence, network effects, openness Internet as a platform

Open Standards Interoperability

GIS 2.0: A Reformulation

Ubiquitous communication Widespread wired and wireless networks (voice and

data)

Device convergence Mobile devices increasing in power and functionality Phone, camera, GPS, form-based database input,

cellular, wifi

Cloud computing SaaS, PaaS, IaaS Network-driven commoditization of IT

Figure 3, Kelmelis et al 2006

The Disaster Cycle

Warning / Evacuation & Response / Recovery

Need information quick

Get everyone on the same page High resolution imagery ‘Common Operating Picture’

Harness volunteers and mobile technology

Open Street Map – Haiti Edits Video

http://vimeo.com/9182869

The Disaster Cycle

Reconstruction / Rehabilitation

Begin building larger datasets Cadastre, elevation, hydro

Focus on logistics, program oversight, monitoring

The Disaster Cycle

Redevelopment / Sustainable Development

Modeling of future hazards

Filling data gaps from recent disaster

Modeling potential economic development

Unifying Data Streams / Approaches

We need to build WebGIS that combine the best of these two worlds?

User Centered Design, clean interfaces, high levels of participation / low barrier to entry

Large data processing, terrain and image processing, statistical modeling, demographic analysis

Recommendations

Datasets prepacked and ready to go Understand data licenses

Preprocess hazard risks (floods, earthquakes,…)

Analytical products as web services

Humanitarian Data Model / Ontology

Thanks!

Email: jsc1@ku.edu

Blog: http://disruptivegeo.com

Twitter: disruptivegeo

Slideshare: jscampbell1