Abstract
Abstract. Geo-information techniques have proven their usefulness for the purposes of early warning and emergency response. These techniques enable us to generate extensive geo-information to make informed decisions in response to natural disasters that lead to better protection of citizens, reduce damage to property, improve the monitoring of these disasters, and facilitate estimates of the damages and losses resulting from them. The maintenance and accessibility of spatial information has improved enormously with the development of spatial data infrastructures (SDIs), especially with second-generation SDIs, in which the original product-based SDI was improved to a process-based SDI. Through the use of SDIs, geo-information is made available to local, national and international organisations in regions affected by natural disasters as well as to volunteers serving in these areas. Volunteer-based systems for information collection (e.g., Ushahidi) have been created worldwide. However, the use of 3D maps is still limited. This paper discusses the applicability of 3D geo-information to disaster management. We discuss some important aspects of maps for disaster management, such as user-centred maps, the necessary components for 3D maps, symbols, and colour schemas. In addition, digital representations are evaluated with respect to their visual controls, i.e., their usefulness for the navigation and exploration of the information. Our recommendations are based on responses from a variety of users of these technologies, including children, geospecialists and disaster managers from different countries.
Highlights
Disaster management requires the involvement of a variety of people, all of whom have their own professional or personal way of perceiving information
The first question to be asked in the course of crisis management is ‘WHERE?’ Where is the disaster? Where are the rescue units? Where are the sources of danger? Where should those in danger be relocated? Without realising it, people often give a reply that has a 3D component, e.g., ‘The fire is on the 6th floor’, ‘The rescue units are still down in the valley’, ‘The dam up the hill is in critical condition.’
These adaptations include the hardware characteristics of the visualisation environment, which influences the size of symbols, the number of distinguishable colours, and transmission characteristics indicating the amount of available data at a given time
Summary
Disaster management requires the involvement of a variety of people, all of whom have their own professional or personal way of perceiving information. Three-dimensional mapping of natural risks and disasters is an area of study that has seen significant growth in the last few years Virtual environments such as Google Earth, Virtual Earth and Second Life have contributed to the wider acceptance of the third dimension in many fields. Many current products (e.g., maps, images, web sites, and 3D environments) for crisis management borrow colour schema, symbols, and map content from existing, application-oriented software, systems, models, and visualisations. These visualisations are not adapted to the specifics of disaster management and fail to consider the context of the user or the decision-making process at the management level in a state of emergency (Fan and Zlatanova, 2008, Snoeren et al, 2006).
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