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Extending Geographic Information Systems for Risk Analysis and Management
Author(s) -
Newkirk Ross T.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of contingencies and crisis management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.007
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5973
pISSN - 0966-0879
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-5973.1993.tb00111.x
Subject(s) - risk analysis (engineering) , geographic information system , risk management , computer science , risk assessment , process (computing) , work (physics) , risk management information systems , task (project management) , set (abstract data type) , it risk management , gis and public health , information system , management information systems , engineering , business , systems engineering , computer security , geography , mechanical engineering , remote sensing , electrical engineering , finance , operating system , programming language
A new kind of Geographic Information System (GIS) and computer support is required for risk analysis and management. Assessment of risk is emerging as important in many areas of planning, engineering, environmental and emergency management. Existing commercial GISs, provide some useful basic means of organizing and displaying spatial information, yet they are particularly inadequate for generating risk simulations – a task essential for risk management. The central problem is the commercial GIS has limited facilities to deal with uncertainty, modelling and simulation. The requirements for GIS risk modelling, functionality, access and design considerations are reviewed. SUMMARY Existing GIS has not been developed to work with uncertainty yet uncertainty is inherent in risk applications. Current risk analysis applications which stem from a scientific expert view lead to dispute and lack of confidence amongst policy makers and the public. It is essential that a new kind of GIS be developed to facilitate consensus building in all aspects of risk assessment and management. The new system (Risk GIS) should ‘know about’ the appropriate environmental information and process sources, should have a tool set to access, store and communicate information between diverse interest areas and should support easy development of alternate views of the possible evolution of classes of risk or specific risks and, secondly, scenarios of risk evolution and mitigation based upon documented assumptions and expressions of uncertainty. Without doubt this is a significant challenge to the GIS industry and, particularly, to risk research scientists who wish to develop a suitable integrated Risk GIS.