Geospatial preparedness: Empirical study of the joint effort to provide geospatial support to disaster response

• Published in: Transactions in GIS Vol. 23; no. 3; pp. 481 - 494
• Main Authors: San Martin, Roberto, Painho, Marco
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2019
• Subjects: Coordination; Decision making; Digital mapping; Disaster management; Disaster relief; Geographical information systems; Humanitarianism; Information management; International organizations; Open systems; Organizations; Security
• ISSN: 1361-1682; 1467-9671
• DOI: 10.1111/tgis.12537

In a disaster aftermath in places lacking geospatial preparedness, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs creates a framework for cooperation with the Coordinated Data Scramble initiative, where Information Management Officers (IMOs) from different organizations work together in supporting the coordination of humanitarian aid. The perspective of these IMOs has been considered to identify the factors influencing the use of GIS in this context. The results show the requirement for a geodata management strategy, including geodata gathering, maintenance, and decision‐making processes based on those geodata. Geodata should be reliable and up‐to‐date. It requires consistent and useful metadata and the possibility of contacting the geodata source. Security and political issues limit information sharing. In this context, OpenStreetMap is often used as a source of information. Therefore, improving OpenStreetMap improves geospatial preparedness. Nevertheless, the use of this open platform highlights issues related to information privacy.