Project Info
In May 2007 EU issued the Directive "Inspire", stating that "a good policy depends on high-quality information and informed public participation." In this spirit, this thesis aims to support the Civil Emergency Planning in Greece by creating a ‘NaTech Disaster Management Web Tool’ (NaTech DiM Web Tool).
The NaTech DiM Web Tool idea was borned in the mind of the author years ago, while serving as an Air Traffic Safety Electronics Engineer at Santorini Airport. The Postgraduate Study Program in Physical Disasters helped in organizing thoughts, knowledge and methodology, while the wealth of data now available, either freely or by means of low cost commercial equipment and software, helped in the completion of a project that was born 10 years ago.
The purpose of the Tool is to collect, organize and present necessary information for the development of emergency plans, consistent with the existing international practice. Also, it is aimed to help in the proper management of human resources and infrastructure by providing vital information during the first critical minutes, hours and first few days, after a natural and\or technological disaster occurance, in order to achieve best response in the shortest possible time, therefore increasing the chances of success in prevention, support, search and rescue and restoration.
At the same time, NaTech DiM Web Tool implements for the first time a common database by combining various data from various sources like geospatial information by governmental authorities, NGOs data, international voluntary initiatives and data provided by commercially available technology.
The Tool is based on freely offered online datasets, like infrastructures, geomorphological and geophysical information, roads, land use, legislation, base maps etc., while part of the information is presented through external Internet links (i.e., Population gathering places).
Tool’s interface is bilingual, Greek and English, as one of the scopes of NaTech DiM Web Tool was to be available for as many citizens as possible Self-protection instructions gathered from various sources scattered across the Internet are provided through NaTech DiM Web Tool website http://www.natech.org, both in English and Greek, to the public.
Geographic Information Systems, commonly known as GIS, was the base both for map compositions and presenting data. Specifically, ArcGIS (versions 9.3.1. and 10), was the software used both for combining and serving Tool’s data.
All map compositions can be delivered in a variety of means (i.e. online, LAN, WAN). Also, NaTech DiM Web Tool supports two free and commonly used applications: Arcgis Explorer Online, which is a free webased online application hosted by ESRI (www.esri.com), and Google Earth Free. Therefore, all citizens can use the Tool, either through a web browser or the Commonly known Google Earth interface, eliminating the need for special training.
