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IST-Africa 2013 Conference Proceedings Paul Cunningham and Miriam Cunningham (Eds) IIMC International Information Management Corporation, 2013 ISBN: 978-1-905824-38-0

Geospatial Information Technology – Essential for Emergency Management Karel CHARVÁT1, Tomáš MILDORF1, Jáchym ČEPICKÝ1, Radovan HILBERT2 1 Czech Centre for Science and Society, Radlicka 28, Prague, 150 00, Czech Republic Tel: + 420 605033596, Email: [email protected] 2 EPTISA, Spain, Email: [email protected] Abstract: The paper presents the main technical features of the Electronic Regional Risk Portal (ERRA) as a geospatial information technology that will support emergency management in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The portal prototype provides solid features for all phases of emergency management. ERRA should protect communities by coordinating and integrating all activities necessary to build, sustain, and improve the capability to mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from threatened or actual natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or other man-made disasters. Keywords: risk management, risk atlas, geoportal, web services, PPRD East, geospatial information technology, disasters. CCSS EIF ENPI ERRA EU GIS GIT HTML INSPIRE ISO OGC OWS PPRD East RSS SDI SLD WFS WMS WYSIWYG

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Czech Centre for Science and Society European Interoperability Framework European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument Electronic Regional Risk Atlas European Union Geographic Information System Geoinformation Technology HyperText Markup Language Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community International Organisation for Standardization Open Geospatial Consortium OGC Web Services Prevention, Preparedness and Response to Man-made and Natural Disasters in the ENPI East Region Rich Site Summary Spatial Data Infrastructure Styled Layer Descriptor Web Feature Service Web Map Service What you see is what you get

Introduction

“Emergency management protects communities by coordinating and integrating all activities necessary to build, sustain, and improve the capability to mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from threatened or actual natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or other man-made disasters.” [4] Emergency management is defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency [4] as “the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters.” Emergency management comes to an attention of policy and decision makers with a clear objective – to

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promote safer, less vulnerable communities with the capacity to cope with hazards and disasters. It has been estimated that over 80% of all information has a spatial component. Spatial components enable to locate objects, processes and other phenomena in order to model their shape and to analyse their relation. Geospatial information is defined by ISO as “information concerning phenomena implicitly or explicitly associated with a location relative to the Earth.” [9] Vast majority of all the information related to emergency management is geographic information. For example locations of communities, vulnerable assets, hazards and fire trucks can be identified and their relations analysed. Emergency management is composed of four commonly accepted phases [11]:  Mitigation - is the effort to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters. This is achieved through risk analysis, which results in information that provides a foundation for mitigation activities that reduce risk.  Preparedness - is how we change behaviour to limit the impact of disaster events on people. Preparedness is a continuous cycle of planning, managing, organising, training, equipping, exercising, creating, evaluating, monitoring and improving activities to ensure effective coordination and the enhancement of capabilities of concerned organisations to prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from, create resources and mitigate the effects of natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters.  Response - includes the mobilisation of the necessary emergency services and first responders in the disaster area. This is likely to include a first wave of core emergency services, such as firemen, police and ambulance crews.  Recovery - to restore the affected area to its previous state. Geospatial information technologies (GIT)1 enable to collect required information, to process it, analyse it and create a plan for mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.

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Objective

The main objective of this paper is to describe the technical part of a civil protection system (a part of an emergency management) in the context of spatial data infrastructure (SDI). The solution is currently being implemented in the frame of the Prevention, Preparedness and Response to Man-made and Natural Disasters in the ENPI East Region (PPRD East) project2. ENPI stands for European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, the financial instrument to support currently 17 countries as visualised in Figure 1. PPRD East is an EU-funded project aiming to support countries in the ENPI East Region, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as Partner Countries). The overall objectives of the PPRD East project are:  to contribute to the development of the Partner Countries‘ civil protection capacities for disaster mitigation, preparedness and response;  to bring the Partner Countries progressively closer to the Community mechanisms for civil protection and improve cooperation between them. One of the main outputs of the project is an Electronic Regional Risk Atlas (ERRA). ERRA is a GIT solution based on open standards enabling users to search, view, analyse

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a broad term encompassing all forms of technology to gather, display, sample, and process geographic or geospatial information, including in particular GIS, remote sensing, and use of the Global Positioning System.” [5] 2 http://www.euroeastcp.eu/ Copyright © 2013 The authors


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and download data related to civil protection. ERRA is based on the geoportal3 solution developed by the Czech Centre for Science and Society4 (CCSS).

Figure 1: ENPI Countries – highlighted by dark green colour (European Commission 2012).

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Spatial Data Infrastructure and Interoperability

Spatial data infrastructure (SDI), sometimes referred to as spatial information infrastructure, is generally understood as a computerised environment for handling data that relate to a position on or near the surface of the earth [6]. There exist many definitions of SDI. The authors use the definition adopted by the INSPIRE Directive5. INSPIRE defines SDI as “the metadata, spatial data sets and spatial data services; network services and technologies; agreements on sharing, access and use; and coordination and monitoring mechanisms, processes and procedures, established, operated or made available in an interoperable manner.” [3] Spatial data represent a fundamental cornerstone of all geoinformation technologies (GIT), spatial applications and spatial services. GIT uses SDI as a source of spatial data, metadata and spatial services. Currently, GIT is becoming a common part of everyday life in modern society. For example, GIT is used for car navigation, cartographic visualisation of spatial data in mass media, displaying maps in mobile devices and browsing applications such as Google Maps or Google Earth. GIT systems are used in network management, transport, state administration and other institutions and organisations influencing global society. GIT and spatial data play an important role in research, education and environment protection. GIT tools are used to monitor changes in the environment, analyse these 3

Geoportal - "A Web site that provides a view into a universe of spatial content and activity through a variety of links to other sites, communication and collaboration tools, and special features geared toward the community served by the portal." [10] 4 http://www.ccss.cz/en 5 Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) Copyright © 2013 The authors


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changes, prevent environmental disasters and eliminate their effects. The wide range of applications includes also emergency management. A crucial step in building a management system for emergency situations is an interoperability of the system between various SDIs and GIT solutions. Interoperability is defined by the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) as "capability to communicate, execute programs, or transfer data among various functional units in a manner that requires the user to have little or no knowledge of the unique characteristics of those units." [8] Recent activity of the European Commission brought to an attention a document describing the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) for European public services. The document highlights needs and benefits of interoperability. Interoperability enables [2]:  cooperation among public administrations with the aim to establish public services;  exchanging information among public administrations to fulfil legal requirements or political commitments;  sharing and reusing information among public administrations to increase administrative efficiency and cut red tape for citizens and businesses. (p. 2) EIF distinguishes four levels of interoperability including legal, organisational, semantic and technical. Interoperability must be achieved not only through technical arrangements. Important roles play coordination between various actors (e.g. data providers and users) as well as legislation supporting interoperability and access to information. As shown in Figure 2, the political context underlines all the interoperability levels and creates the environment for successful and meaningful cooperation.

Figure 2: Levels of Interoperability (adapted from [2]).

Interoperability on all levels can be achieved through common standards, specifications and other agreements. If all data, services, legislation and technologies share the same set of agreements, the interoperability can be achieved. The most important international and well respected standards are from the Technical Committee 211 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO/TC 211) and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Copyright © 2013 The authors


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Together with national standards they create the core for the SDI implementation. It is highly recommended to keep the national standards compliant with ISO and OGC standards to enable interoperability across national borders. Interoperability in cross border applications is especially needed in emergency management. ISO/TC 211 Geographic information/Geomatics is responsible for the ISO geographic information series of standards. These standards may specify, for geographic information, methods, tools and services for data management (including definition and description), acquiring, processing, analysing, accessing, presenting and transferring such data in digital/electronic form between different users, systems and locations. The ISO/TC 211 standards provide a framework for the development of sector-specific applications using geographic data. OGC is an international industry consortium of 467 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available interface standards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services and mainstream IT. The standards empower technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications. OGC standards are developed in a unique consensus process supported by the OGC's industry, government and academic members to enable geoprocessing technologies to interoperate, or "plug and play". [10]

4. Electronic Regional Risk Atlas (ERRA) 4.1 Liferay Based Geoportal Solution The implementation of the Electronic Regional Risk Atlas (ERRA) is based on the Liferay6 solution. It is a web platform orchestrating all the geoportal components and other gadgets, portlets and pages. Liferay enables users to:  define the content and menu;  publish articles, images and links;  publish predefined map compositions;  publish RSS channels. Liferay is focused on usability and simplicity for end users but also on clarity and security of the ERRA implementation. Users can define the menu of the geoportal and its submenus. Any menu or submenu can incorporate external web links. The user can publish articles using the content holders. A WYSIWYG7 editor provides a good user experience for beginners. The content holders support HTML code for advanced users. The editor allows inserting various multimedia content including You Tube videos, photos and SlideShare presentations. 4.2 General Architecture of ERRA ERRA is built on national and regional nodes within Partner Countries. Every national or regional node consists of a portal publishing data through the OGC compliant services. Authorisation and authentication for portal, Geoserver and services is provided by central server. Figure 3 depicts the general architecture. Non-public data are secured by the GeoShield solution which provides restricted access to services and masking of data according to defined filter (extent, polygon, layers etc.). Every node provides functionality for uploading spatial data, creating visualisations and publication of services. OGC standards are used to secure interoperability between nodes. 6 7

http://www.liferay.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WYSIWYG



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Figure 3: General Architecture

Since ERRA will be used in cross-border scenarios, support of multiple languages is essential. Different nations using different languages will be involved in the operation of ERRA. This requires a multilingual solution where the user of ERRA can switch the geoportal into his/her preferable language. 4.3 Data Visualisation In order to display uploaded data to ERRA, there will be a possibility to configure the way how they will be provided to users. In general, two basic concepts are considered: 1. Data will be provided in raster format – in this case the data will be rendered on server side by applying data style in SLD (Styled Layer Descriptor) format on original data. Rendered raster will be then served using OGC Web Map Service. For performance booth these rendered data can be efficiently cached on server side. This approach is optimal for large scale data that doesn't change too often. 2. Data will be provided as a vector data and they will be rendered directly in Java script client. In this case the OGC Web Feature Service or KML (OGC specification for data visualisation) will be used. The map application enables user to create thematic map compositions using services published by Geoserver or any other OGC Web Service (OWS) server (Figure 4).

Figure 4: User (or administrator) can Create Thematic Maps Using Standard OGC OWS Client, part of the Mapping Application.



(map

compositions)

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4.4 Data Collection Using Mobile Phones Emergency management requires collection of data using mobile phones. Data from emergency situations can be retrieved through the mobile network and stored, analysed and visualised in ERRA. The mobile solution for data collection developed by CCSS has two major modules: 1. Mobile client for quick field data capture (e.g. floods, fire events) – it is an Android application that enables to quickly and simply send information to ERRA (Figure 5). 2. The server side module – it is an application that receives the information from mobile clients and stores the data in a database.

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5: Screen Sample of the Mobile Phone Client

Embedded Component

ERRA enables user to create a map and insert it as an embedded object into any HTML pages. Users can define parameters which affect how the map will look like in the target HTML page (Figure 6).

Figure

6: Embedded Map Window – Generating the HTML Code



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5.

Metadata Catalogue – Key for Data and Service Management

In order to find spatial data sets and services needed for particular emergency situation, spatial data sets and services providers secure their descriptions in the form of metadata8. Discrete units of metadata are metadata elements [7] (e.g. resource title, keyword, spatial resolution, responsible organisation). In order to have the metadata compatible and usable in trans-boundary context, it is necessary to lay down rules for metadata. There are several initiatives that set out these rules. In order to achieve interoperability of the catalogues between various geoportal solutions, the ISO 19115/19119/19139 standards will be used. The minimal metadata profile that should be filled for each dataset or service should be INSPIRE compliant to enable interoperability with the European portal9.

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7: MICKA – Metadata Catalogue

Micka is a complex system for metadata management (metadata creation, editing, storing, etc.) used for building SDI or geoportal solutions. It contains tools for editing and management of metadata for spatial information, web services and other sources (documents, web sites, etc.). It includes online metadata search engine, portrayal of spatial information and download of spatial data to local computer. Micka is a metadata catalogue that fully complies with the ISO 19115 standard and is fully compliant with the INSPIRE principles. It can be integrated with map applications and it is multilingual. The web catalogue service uses OGC specifications (standards). Micka is compatible with obligatory standards for European SDI building (INSPIRE). Therefore it is ready to be connected with other nodes of prepared networked metadata catalogues (its compatibility with pilot European geoportal is continuously being tested).

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Metadata - information describing spatial data sets and spatial data services and making it possible to discover, inventory and use them. [3] 9 http://inspire-geoportal.ec.europa.eu/ Copyright © 2013 The authors


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6.

Conclusions

The paper describes the technical solution of an emergency management system. The solution is in the phase of implementation and has not been tested in real life. The GIT solution should become a part of the emergency management in the ENPI region. The solution provides solid features for all phases of emergency management. It should protect communities by coordinating and integrating all activities necessary to build, sustain, and improve the capability to mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from threatened or actual natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or other man-made disasters. An attention was paid to the interoperability of the system with other GIT solutions. The interoperability will secure integration of data from various sources and in cross border applications. This is a crucial point in emergency management. ERRA will be implemented in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, but the principles and the technology could be applied in Africa and other continents.

References [1] European Commission. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu [Accessed August 31, 2012]. [2] European Interoperability Framwork (EIF) for European public services, 2010. [3] DIRECTIVE 2007/2/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE). Available at: http://eurlex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:L:2007:108:SOM:EN:HTML [Accessed May 31, 2012]. [4] Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2007. Principles of Emergency Management Supplement. [5] House, C., 2003. Geospatial information technologies hold promise for wildland fire management, but challenges remain., DIANE Publishing. [6] International Organization for Standardization, 2011. CEN/TR 15449 Geographic information Standards, specifications, technical reports and guidelines, required to implement Spatial Data Infrastructures. Available at: http://esearch.cen.eu/esearch/Details.aspx?id=6880372 [Accessed August 31, 2012]. [7] International Organization for Standardization, 2003. ISO 19115 - Geographic information - Metadata. Available at: http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=26020 [Accessed June 21, 2011]. [8] International Organization for Standardization, 1993. ISO/IEC 2382-1 Information technology -Vocabulary -Part 1: Fundamental terms. Available at: http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=7229 [Accessed June 15, 2011]. [9] International Organization for Standardization, 2008. ISO/TS 19104 - Geographic information Terminology. Available at: http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=45020 [Accessed June 8, 2011]. [10] Open Geospatial Consortium, 2012. Open Geospatial Consortium. Available at: http://www.opengeospatial.org [Accessed February 18, 2012]. [11] Wikipedia contributors, 2012. Emergency management. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emergency_management&oldid=527665401 [Accessed December 14, 2012].



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