Spatial databases in emergency planning

ABSTRACT

Communities develop specific mechanisms to manage the risk associated with natural and man-made events. The complexity of those mechanisms depends on societal expectations, community wealth, and perceived level of risk. These mechanisms usually take the form of comprehensive plans to manage the event within the context of the community's resources and features. Emergency planners remark that plans are of limited use without the resources to carry them out. An informal survey suggests that a system that allows an emergency manager to store and retrieve information about community resources would fill a very real Canadian need. Computer simulation models play an important role in emergency planning. Models are used to identify hazard areas, manage evacuations, and predict the behaviour of fires and spills. This paper introduces several concepts and techniques that may be useful in the design of SRMIS and identifies areas for future research