RESPONSE OF THE GDACS SYSTEM TO THE TOHOKU EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI OF 11 MARCH 2011

The Tohoku Tsunami of 11 March 2011 was successfully identified and classified as Red alert by the GDACS system only when reliable and more correct estimations of the originating event have been provided to the system by the international seismological networks. Nevertheless the early analysis of the event by the comparison of the scenario calculations with the sea level could give important information on the real extent and impact of the Tsunami. The paper describe the response of the GDACS system and identify the lessons learned that determined changes in the logic and the procedures of the Tsunami calculations strategy.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

Geoprocessing Web Services

Since 2003, Critech has performed research on web based geoprocessing. This was before OGC started work on the Web Processing Service standards. While continuously evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of existing (open-source and commercial) GIS software packages, the operational benefits of an ESRI site license drove the development in this area. Early work focused on scripting technologies. In 2007, Critech exploited the Application Program Interfaces (APIs) of ESRI software, in particular ESRI SDE. With the (stable) release of ESRI ArcGIS Server, web geoprocessing becomes an integral part of the software. This new technology will be used by Critech in 2008. This document reports on the status of the work.JRC.G.2-Support to external securit

Index for Risk Management - InfoRM: Concept and Methodology

The Index for Risk Management (InfoRM) initiative began in October 2012 as a convergence of interests of United Nations agencies, humanitarian donors and the European Commission to establish a common evidence-base for global humanitarian risk analysis. A concept was developed by a core group of agencies and presented publicly at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in May 2013. The JRC is the technical partner and has developed the methodology for the composite indicator. The current document describes the final methodology that will be used for the publication of the first InfoRM Index in early 2014.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

Humanitarian Impact of Tropical Cyclones

JRC¿s research on tropical cyclones of 2007 builds the foundations for an innovative cyclone alert model. In contrast with the work of 2006 (focusing on wind speed modelling), 2007 focused on integrating data provided by other organisations into a single consequence analysis model. A collaboration with the Pacific Disaster Center allowed JRC to access structured data on tropical cyclone track information. This new source of information, available since August 2007, enables us to implement more advanced impact models which provide improved information for humanitarian emergency managers. As a result, since October 2007 GDACS maps feature tropical cyclone wind buffers overlaid on global real-time cloud images. While a lot of modelling work has been completed and geoprocessing systems were put in place to exploit this new source of data, the resulting products have not been integrated fully in GDACS.JRC.G.2-Support to external securit

29 September 2009 Samoa Tsunami

On 29 September 2009 at 17:48:11 UTC a large earthquake of magnitude 8 struck off-shore of the Samoa Islands and generated a large tsunami that destroyed several villages and caused more than 160 fatalities. This report first presents the characteristics of the earthquake and discusses the best estimations for the fault parameters. These are necessary input data for the hydrodynamic tsunami calculations. Then, a comparison between the near-real time systems and the post-event calculations is performed, with an analysis of the observed differences compared with observed tidal measurements. Coarse, detailed and very detailed calculations are presented in order to identify areas of maximum damage. Conclusions are drawn for improvements in the near-real time system.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

A European Framework for Recording and Sharing Disaster Damage and Loss Data

The recently adopted ‘Sendai Framework for Action on Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030’ sets the goals to reduce loss of life, livelihood and critical infrastructure through enhanced national planning and international cooperation. The new Framework is expected to enhance global, regional and national efforts for building resilience to disasters, across the entire disaster management cycle (prevention, preparedness, response and early recovery). Improved monitoring and accountability frameworks, relying on harmonized disaster loss data will be required for meeting the targets and for capturing the levels of progress across different scales of governance. To overcome the problems of heterogeneous disaster data and terminologies, guidelines for reporting disaster damage and losses in a structured manner will be necessary to help national and regional bodies compile this information. In the European Union, the Member States and the European Commission worked together on the establishment of guidelines for recording and sharing disaster damage and loss data as a first step towards the development of operational indicators to translate the Sendai Framework into action. This paper describes the progress to date in setting a common framework for recording disaster damage and loss data in the European Union and identifies the challenges ahead.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

Multi-Sensor Imaging and Space-Ground Cross-Validation for 2010 Flood along Indus River, Pakistan

Flood monitoring was conducted using multi-sensor data from space-borne optical, and microwave sensors; with cross-validation by ground-based rain gauges and streamflow stations along the Indus River; Pakistan. First; the optical imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) was processed to delineate the extent of the 2010 flood along Indus River; Pakistan. Moreover; the all-weather all-time capability of higher resolution imagery from the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) is used to monitor flooding in the lower Indus river basin. Then a proxy for river discharge from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite and rainfall estimates from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) are used to study streamflow time series and precipitation patterns. The AMSR-E detected water surface signal was cross-validated with ground-based river discharge observations at multiple streamflow stations along the main Indus River. A high correlation was found; as indicated by a Pearson correlation coefficient of above 0.8 for the discharge gauge stations located in the southwest of Indus River basin. It is concluded that remote-sensing data integrated from multispectral and microwave sensors could be used to supplement stream gauges in sparsely gauged large basins to monitor and detect floods.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

Tropical Cyclone ISAAC. USA, August 2012

Tropical Cyclone ISAAC, after causing damage and deaths in Haiti, moved towards the coast of SE Louisiana (USA), where it made two landfalls. After the second landfall, it started moving inland in SE Louisiana, passing W of New Orleans on Aug 29 afternoon/evening (UTC), weakening into a tropical storm, then late on Aug 30 became a tropical depression. Tropical Cyclone ISAAC affected the southern parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with heavy rainfall, strong winds and storm surge, causing flooding, power outages, damage to property and, according to media report, killing at least 7 people. Most of this damage has been caused by heavy rains and storm surge. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) followed the event through the information automatically collected and analysed in the Global Disasters Alerts and Coordination System (GDACS). GDACS classification, for TC ISAAC in the USA, was: Green for the wind impact, Orange for rain impact and Red for storm surge impact. On 27 August 2012, 2 days before the landfall, the JRC HyFlux2 storm surge model indicated a possible storm surge in the order of 2.5-3.5m for Aug 29 morning (UTC) in the coastal area E-SE of New Orleans, Louisiana Online observations and NOAA reports confirmed the forecasts. This report analyses and discusses the GDACS automatic impact assessments and compares the JRC HyFlux2 deterministic storm surge forecasts with the probabilistic forecasts provided by NOAA.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

Recording Disaster Losses: Recommendations for a European approach

In a study commissioned by Directorate General Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection of the European Commission, the Joint Research Centre formulates technical recommendations for a European approach to standardize loss databases. Loss data are useful for the implementation of disaster risk reduction strategies in Europe (from local to national scales) and to help understand disaster loss trends at global level. Taking stock of existing work, the study defines a conceptual framework for the utility of loss data which allows a cost-benefit analysis of implementation scenarios. The framework considered loss accounting, disaster forensics and risk modelling. Depending on the scale (detail of recording) and scope (geographic coverage), technical requirements will be more or less stringent, and costs of implementation will vary accordingly. The technical requirements proposed in this study rely as much as possible on existing standards, best practices and approaches found in literature, international and national organisations and academic institutions. The requirements cover very detailed recording (at asset level) as well as coarse scale recording. Limitations and opportunities of existing EU legislation are considered as the EU context.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

Unmanned Aerial Systems for Rapid Mapping - UASRapidMap 2013 4th JRC ECML Crisis Management Technology Workshop

The 4th JRC ECML Crisis Management Technology Workshop on Unmanned Aerial Systems for Rapid Mapping was co-organised by the European Commission Joint Research Centre and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research - Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNITAR - UNOSAT). It took place in Geneva & Dardagny, Switzerland from 11 to 13 September 2013. 74 participants from UN and EC stakeholders, NGOs, civil protection bodies, academia, and industry attended the workshop. The workshop's purpose was to present, demonstrate, and explore the state-of-the-art and future potential of unmanned aerial systems for rapid mapping applications in the context of humanitarian crisis aid and natural disaster relief operations. Main impressions from the workshop were the diversity in technological solutions for various practical uses, the rapid turnaround time from flight to having useable data at hand in the field and a reality check on what are still challenges related to flight permissions. Within the European Union a process on the harmonisation of the diverse regulations for UAS operations and the introduction of UAS into the civil airspace is ongoing. The UAS technology will most likely make a large impact on data collection in future emergency situations. In addition, based on what was demonstrated, the tools are also useful for disaster risk reduction activities.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen