ISSN: 2329-6755
Journal of Geology & Geosciences The International Open Access Journal of Geology & Geosciences
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his article was originally published in a journal by OMICS Publishing Group, and the attached copy is provided by OMICS Publishing Group for the author’s benefit and for the benefit of the author’s institution, for commercial/research/educational use including without limitation use in instruction at your institution, sending it to specific colleagues that you know, and providing a copy to your institution’s administrator. All other uses, reproduction and distribution, including without limitation commercial reprints, selling or licensing copies or access, or posting on open internet sites, your personal or institution’s website or repository, are requested to cite properly. Digital Object Identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2329-6755.1000e101
Tuong, J Geol Geosci 2012, 1:1 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2329-6755.1000e101
Geology & Geosciences Editorial
Open Access
The Role of Geospatial Technologies in Disaster Emergency Responses Tuong Thuy Vu* Assistant Professor, School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Malaysia campus, Malaysia
Geospatial technologies play a significant role in disaster management cycle. The recent large-scale earthquake and tsunami events have demonstrated their uses in post-disaster emergency responses. Remote sensing provides synoptic and detailed data required for emergency and post-disaster responses. It is the unique source of timely data captured in hard-hit and inaccessible areas after a disaster. To respond to a large-scale disaster, the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters shall be activated whereby more space sensors were rescheduled to capture the disaster area, and hence, data availability is not a critical question these days. Data interpretation for mapping damage areas was a slow process when relying on visual interpretation. Numerous research and development on automated interpretation has not yet produced a reliable solution, visual interpretation is still needed for damage assessment. It has much been improved with the developed web-based geospatial collaborative platform which allows numerous interpreters around the world acquiring the data and submitting their allocated works. The process is speeded up drastically and introduced a new term/approach, crowd-sourcing damage assessment. The critical issue
of crowd-sourcing data analysis is data quality control and it remains an issue needs to be solved. Geospatial tools and services, including mobile and web-based solutions, have extensively deployed in emergency responses and relief efforts. For instance, mobile mapping solutions ease the work of inspectors and rescuers on the ground. The geospatial web-based platforms have been used for dispatched management and planning, community participatory mapping and reporting. The crowd-sourcing damage assessment platform as mentioned above could take granted of those timely information contributed by the communities on the ground providing a verification mechanism exists to maintain the quality. Experiences from latest large-scale disasters infer that there exists the gap between the demands from disaster management practitioners and what geospatial analysts produce. Therefore, it is vital to provide training on spatial thinking skills to the disaster management practitioners and set up a communication channel to geospatial researchers and analysts.
*Corresponding author: Tuong Thuy Vu, Assistant Professor, School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Malaysia campus, Malaysia, Tel: 603-8924-8757; E-mail:
[email protected] Received July 26, 2011; Accepted July 26, 2012; Published July 27, 2012 Citation: Tuong Thuy Vu (2012) The Role of Geospatial Technologies in Disaster Emergency Responses. J Geol Geosci 1: e101. doi: 10.4172/2329-6755.1000e101 Copyright: © 2012 Tuong Thuy Vu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Volume 1 • Issue 1 • 1000e101
