Sixth PPRD South training workshop for staff-level officials 'Risk assessment and mapping through geographic information systems'

Background

As the successor of the previous EU funded “Pilot” and “Bridge” programmes on Euro- Mediterranean cooperation in Civil Protection, in March 2009 the Euromed Programme on Prevention, Preparedness and Response to Natural and Man-made Disasters (“PPRD South” or “Programme” – www.euromedcp.eu) started implementation under the service contract signed between the EC EuropeAid Cooperation Office and the Consortium established by the Italian Civil Protection Department, jointly with the Civil Protection authorities of Algeria, Egypt and France and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction – UNISDR.

The overall purpose of PPRD South is contributing to reinforce the quality of Civil Protection services in the Euro-Mediterranean region and to continue institutional cooperation in the field, both between the EU and the Partner Countries and among the Partner Countries themselves. For this purpose, the PPRD South has planned a number of initiatives to improve knowledge by Partner Countries of existing risk prevention and preparedness methodologies and to reinforce the capacities for coordinated and effective response to disasters. In this framework, a crucial component under participatory development by PPRD South and the Partner Countries is the web-Geographical Information System based PPRD South Regional Risk Atlas.

Introduction

A Geographical Information System (“GIS”) is any information systems that stores, integrates, manages and displays data and information linked to locations. GIS applications, in particular, allow users to analyze spatial information, edit data, maps, and present the results of these operations. In the simplest terms, a GIS is the merging of cartography and database technology.

In the context of Civil Protection, a GIS can effectively support decision makers engaged in operations for reducing the risk of natural and man-made disasters (DRR). It can also allow effective cooperation among different relevant institutions in a country being GIS one of the primary tools for sharing the so-called "common operational picture".

“A common operational picture (COP) is a single identical display of relevant (operational) information (e.g. position and status of important infrastructure such as bridges, roads, etc.) shared by more than one Command. A COP facilitates collaborative planning and assists all echelons to achieve situational awareness”. Although the above definition comes from the military field, it has been recently more and more adopted also in the homeland security and medical domains. It is all about creating the suitable tools to deliver the right information, in the right form, at the right time. This would provide users with the situational awareness to make the best possible decisions for any contingency.

A shared GIS is a basic tool through which it is possible to:

- Actively collect and organize data to transform it into actionable knowledge for decision making;
- Correlate disparate information fragments in order to construct "the BIG picture";
- Enable users to spend more time problem solving and less time managing information. In short, this technology brings order to any situation where information overload could represent a problem and enables users to quickly and easily collaborate across organizational boundaries.

A GIS in Civil Protection, in particular, can help to develop maps that show the distribution of natural and man-made hazards in a country or a region, including the estimated size of the populations exposed to hazards, and the location and characteristics of strategic infrastructures in the area concerned.

On this basis, a GIS can be utilized to assist in forecasting (statistically) the magnitude of a disaster on a vulnerable population, to assess potential damages and to improve disaster preparedness (e.g.: a GIS can assist in the identification and prioritization of measures aimed to mitigate the effects of natural hazards in the area).

Through the integration of satellite images, a GIS in Civil Protection can also support response and relief activities following a major emergency (e.g.: damage assessment and early recovery activities). The expertise and the IT tools developed by the Italian Civil Protection Department (DPC) for the implementation of its GIS may be potentially adapted and replicated in to the context of Civil Protection in the Mediterranean region, both at national and at regional level.

The web-based GIS application that was developed in the framework of the “GeoSDI” programme (www.geosdi.org), in particular, can be potentially adapted and replicated in the management of existing geo-spatial information in the Mediterranean Civil Protection context. GeoSDI is a programme coordinated by DPC, aimed to develop the Italian National Spatial Data Infrastructure for Civil Protection, according to the provisions of the EC “INSPIRE Directive”, and based on open source GIS software applications. The INSPIRE Directive, in particular, entered into force in 2007, and established a common infrastructure for spatial information in Europe to support Community environmental policies, and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.

For the purpose of this training workshop, a trial adaptation of the GeoSDI web-based application – the “PPRD South Web GIS” – was developed and the existing open access international sources of data and information on risk, vulnerability and exposure (EM-DAT, DEVINFO, UN, etc.) relevant to the Mediterranean context were assessed so as to make some initial information available to the Partner Countries.

Taking advantage of the above mentioned resources (PPRD South Web GIS and relevant basic data per country), participants will be introduced to the key concepts of the geographic information system approach (GIS) and will be provided with methodologies and tools necessary for the development of the PPRD South Regional Risk Atlas and for the exchange of data at national and regional level.

Participants will learn how manage basic data in order to obtain a qualitative risk assessment, identifying and calculating proper indicators and indexes. Furthermore, they will use the results of this activity to set-up and populate the PPRD South Regional Risk Atlas which, in our case, would represent the “common operational picture” or “the big picture” of the risks affecting the Mediterranean Region.

Beside this methodological approach, they will be also provided with specific tools and functionalities for managing, editing, analyzing, sharing and displaying general alphanumeric and geo-spatial data in an integrated geographic information system. Until now a set of regional risk related thematic workshops6 took place and new ones are planned in the next future7, always with the cooperation of the Programme Partner Countries.

Those workshops were attended by representatives from different fields because they were mainly aimed at promoting the establishment and growth, within the Partner Countries, of a network of institutions and agencies with functions related to the entire disaster management cycle (i.e. prevention, preparedness, response, recovery).

This training workshop targets Civil Protection/Civil Defence officials to provide them with basic methodological elements and tools and essential procedures to ensure that the maximum inter institutional co-operation can become actually possible at the operational level, also from the technical point of view.

Issues like collaborative geospatial data editing, copyright, as well as guidelines for the setting-up of a GIS Web Portal are in fact some examples of the foreseen topics. Among all these tools and topics, a central role is of course played by the PPRD South Regional Risk Atlas, which is a fundamental tool, specifically addressed to satisfy the need of a national and sub-national shared “common picture” of the risk exposure within the Mediterranean region, as a unique reference for
all the institutions involved in the prevention and preparedness activities.

In conclusion, the overall purpose of this workshop is to provide the Partner Countries with the opportunity and the necessary support to increase cooperation and synergies between the national Civil Protection Authorities (disaster risk management decision makers) and the national scientific community and research institutions (data owners). Such cooperation and synergies will serve to set the basis for the most effective development of the national disaster risk management knowledge base and, possibly, to prepare the ground for the establishment of the National Platforms for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Training workshop, structure and expected outcome

The training workshop will include theoretical modules followed by practical exercise. To ensure effective participation in this action, all participants are requested to bring their personal computers at the location of the training workshop. This training workshop intends to build on the knowledge gained from the workshop on “Geographical Information Systems for Civil Protection” held on March 2010. As a consequence, participants will further increase their knowledge on key concepts and tools for the management, integration, editing, analysis and sharing of geographical information in the context of Civil
Protection and will be introduced to the methodologies for data and information search and elaboration, as well as for the development of the PPRD South Regional Risk Atlas. The PPRD South Regional Risk Atlas is mainly addressed to national and sub-national prevention and preparedness activities.

Objectives of the workshop

- Familiarizing with risk data management methods and with qualitative approaches for risk assessment
- Better understanding of the qualitative risk indicator use for the purpose of the PPRD South Regional Risk Atlas development.
- Increasing the capacities of the participants to work with geospatial information through the PPRD South Regional Risk Atlas;
- Building ownership of the PPRD South Regional Risk Atlas by the participants and empowering them for further promotion of the tool in their countries;
- Increasing the capacities in dealing with open access national and international sources of data and information relevant to Civil Protection actions;
- Increasing the capacities in researching and integrating into the PPRD South Regional Risk Atlas national data and information relevant to Civil Protection actions.

Topics covered by the workshop

- Components of a Geographical Information System with focus on the different typologies of geographical data;
- Open source GIS software applications;
- Methodologies for data pre-processing and creation of geo-spatial data bases;
- Data search in internet and in relevant open source database;
- Use of excel files and of statistical data;
- Hazard, exposure and vulnerability data;
-Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and qualitative risk maps generation;
- Use of the model to build the qualitative risk indicator and related maps;
- The web-based Geographical Information System;
- The set-up of the PPRD South Regional Risk Atlas through the geographic information system approach and the GeoSDI tool.