Developing Spatial Data Infrastructure to Facilitate Disaster Management

The role of spatial information and related technologies in disaster management has been well-known worldwide. One of the challenges concerned with such a role is access to and usage of reliable, accurate and up-to-date spatial information for disaster management. This is a very important aspect to disaster response as timely, up-to-date and accurate spatial information describing the current situation is paramount to successfully responding to an emergency. This includes information about available resources, access to roads and damaged areas, required resources, required responding operations, etc., and should be available and accessible for use in a short period of time. Sharing information between involved parties in order to facilitate coordinated disaster response operations is another challenge in disaster management. This paper aims to address the role of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) as a framework for facilitating disaster management. It is argued that the design and implementation of an SDI model as a framework and consideration of SDI development factors and issues can assist the disaster management agencies in such a way that they improve the quality of their decision-makings and increase their efficiencies and effectiveness in all level of disaster management activities. The paper is based on an ongoing research project in Iran regarding the development of an SDI Model for disaster management. This includes the development of a prototype web-based system which can facilitate sharing, access and use of data in disaster management and especially disaster response