Integrating Global Open Geo-Information for Major Disaster Assessment: A Case Study of the Myanmar Flood

Abstract

Major disasters typically impact large areas, cause considerable damages, and result in significant human and economic losses. The timely and accurate estimation of impacts and damages is essential to better understand disaster conditions and to support emergency response operations. Geo-information drawn from various sources at multi spatial-temporal scales can be used for disaster assessments through a synthesis of hazard, exposure, and post disaster information based on pertinent approaches. Along with the increased availability of open sourced data and cooperation initiatives, more global scale geo-information, including global land cover datasets, has been produced and can be integrated with other information for disaster dynamic damage assessment (e.g., impact estimation immediately after a disaster occurs, physical damage assessment during the emergency response stage, and comprehensive assessment following an emergency response). Residential areas and arable lands affected by the flood disaster occurring from July to August 2015 in Myanmar were assessed based on satellite images, GlobeLand30 data, and other global open sourced information as a study case. The results show that integrating global open geo-information could serve as a practical and efficient means of assessing damage resulting from major disasters worldwide, especially at the early emergency response stage.

Big Data and Climate Change

“…A case study in South Korea [95] predicted the regional level building damage risk under weather extremes or natural disasters using decision tree analysis. In regards to flood damage assessment mapping, the case study of the Myanmar flood in [96] emphasised the significance of global open geo-information, while later Cian et al [97] adopted the earth observation big data and proposed the normalized difference flood index for flood mapping. Given the significant amount of emissions caused by fire disturbance on a global scale, a recent research work by Ramo et al [98] investigated the global burned area mapping using classification data mining techniques.…”

Spatial Analysis of Linear Structures in the Exploration of Groundwater

“…The quaternary of dominant sandy lithology showed variable dispersed granules, gravels, clay sands and sandy clays in the pools of ponds and lakes [12,13]. Unlike the sandy formations in areas adjacent to floodplains, clay-dominated components in lowlands, ponds, and lakes tended to limit water exchange between flood waters and the underlying formations of the continental terminal, and play a fundamental role in the hydrology of the delta [14,15]. To the west of the study area, there were some small areas with coarse textures.…”

Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Intense Convective Storms Tracks in a Densely Urbanized Italian Basin

“…It is thus fundamental to gain a better understanding of the physical processes behind convective storms. This is usually done by investigating the causes and the atmospheric mechanisms which originate these phenomena [10][11][12] and identifying the most critical areas by monitoring past events [13][14][15]. Among all the drivers that concur in the formation of such convective events, the temperature has a key role [16,17].…”