GIS role in disasters

GIS plays a vital role in disaster response--It visually shows disaster areas, issues and problems that must be addressed. GIS can provide things as simple as street maps for workers to get around to maps the depict flood areas or residential density. In recent month GIS was utilized for earthquakes in Haiti, India and Chile identifying the magnitude population density of the area as well as the land topography.

The role of GIS in disaster response and how it relates to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is that it assists scientist and administrators in determining the scope of the spill. GIS also aides in the construction of models to determine the theoretical movement of the oil at the surface and below. The product can be tailored specifically to the audience and can serve a variety of customers.

GIS has yet to provide significant predictive information and this could be attributed to the lack of information of subsurface currents as well as varying variables such as water temperature density and salinity.

Government organizations such as National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as private entities such as BP and CNN have utilized GIS to convey their interpretation of the oil spill—manipulating the known data to support their interest.

http://students.uwf.edu/mc57/oil_animation.avi