8th international conference on geo-information for disaster management

Background

Disasters of natural and technological origin have caused enormous socioeconomic losses and millions of victims in the past years. Hazard prediction and risk mitigation need improvements through research and developments to curb damages and protect lives. A good cooperation and coordination of crisis response operations are of critical importance to react rapidly and adequately to any crisis situation. Technology progress to support crisis response has advanced greatly in the last few years. System for early warning, command and control, decision-making have been successfully implemented in many countries and regions all over the world. However, many aspects related to efficient collection and integration of geo-information, applied semantics and situation awareness for disaster management are still open. To advance the systems and make them intelligent, an extensive collaboration is required between emergency responders, disaster managers, system designers and researchers.

The Public Safety Districts of the Netherlands will host the annual Gi4DM Conference that will gather a worldwide group of researchers and experts. It will take place in the city of Enschede and will aim at exchanging experiences and ideas in order to shape up relevant and appropriate solutions to crisis response issues.

The Conference will include the conduction of test scenarios, exercises, presentations and discussion sessions.