What is the potential of using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Disaster Prevention and Emergency Management as it may apply to volcanoes ? How can GIS be useful ? Can you tell me the impact of WWW on emergency management in the context of volcanoes? Alternatively, do you know of experts in this field or those undertaking research ?

rocky Sudha Maheshwari

Hi Sudha,

You've asked a bunch of complex questions.

What is the potential of using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Disaster Prevention and Emergency Management as it may apply to volcanoes ?

I think that GIS has a good potential for decreasing volcanic hazards, mainly in the long-term context of land-use planning. As you probably know, GIS is good for looking at patterns and relationships between different types of data. In some cases these relationships are pretty obvious without having to construct a GIS. For example you may find that on your particular volcano that valleys on the north slopes correspond to areas that were innundated by lahars prior to 1850 and valleys on the south side have been innundated since then. This might make you want to put more immediate efforts into relocating those who live in those south flank valleys.

Two people that I know are doing volcanological GIS work are Dr. Cassandra Coombs at The College of Charleston, and Dr. Alun Jones, who works for a private GIS company in England. I will pass your questions on to them and hopefully they will answer you directly.

As for the WWW, I think the best use will be for educating the public. If enough of the population has even only a basic idea of how volcanoes work, then when a volcano is showing signs of unrest, the public will have a better idea of what to do, even before civil defense authorities come along to tell them what to do. Of course most people who are threatened by volcanoes live in places that are poor and don't have www access. Perhaps if the populations of more technologically-advanced countries are better accquainted with what volcanoes do, they'll be more likely to support funding for international volcano research, education, and relief efforts.

Good quesitons!

Sincerely,

Scott Rowland 

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