First International Conference on MOLDAVIAN RISKS – FROM ...

<strong>First</strong> <strong>International</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> on MOLDAVIAN RISKS - FROM GLOBAL TO LOCAL SCALE
16-19 May 2012, Bacau, Romania
IMPROVING MANAGEMENT AND EVALUATION OF RISKS
AND NATURAL DISASTERS BY REGIONAL GIS
DISTRIBUTED APPLICATION
Iulian Furdu, Cosmin Tomozei, Ioana Pandele
“Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacau, Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and
Educational Sciences
Corresponding author: Ioana Pandele, ioana.pandele@ub.ro
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to provide a framework for the improvement of the
processes of management and evaluation of risks in Central East Moldavian Region,
regarding the natural disasters occurrence, such as floods, earthquakes, forest fires and
landslides. Consequently, a GIS Application will be developed, in order to graphically
reflect and analyze these risks. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is mapping
software which provides spatial data analysis by linking locations with information about
them. The main objective of Risk-GIS is the support of decision making and problem
solving in areas related to community safety and sustainability. Thus, it represents the
analytical engine that manages the process of evaluation of the risks of natural hazards. A
crucial feature in the selection of a GIS is the identification of a minimum set of required
capabilities. The most important ones include: data retrieval, data capture, data storage,
data management, data analysis, and data display. Recent GIS applications for risk
management at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency include ORD/ESD, ATtILA, ReVA
etc. Similar products or projects are LATIS for flood risk management in Flanders,
Belgium, AGSO- Natural hazards and risk they pose to South East Queensland
(Geoscience Australia in conjunction with the Bureau of Meteorology)
http://www.agso.gov.au/urban/factsheets/risk_modelling.jsp), FEMID- Project for
strengthening of structures in case of disasters etc. Although the Central East region of
Moldavia is well known as a source of potential high risks of natural disasters, the
development of software which models such events is still at an early stage. The main
objective is to bring into light the capabilities of our ArcGIS and .NET based software
framework, which has a higher level of usability, so as to be accessed by non-expert users.
Hazard maps have been created in order to indicate landslide hazard, flood hazard or fire
hazard. Software utility and functionality is extended by using alarms in a distributed
environment, by computing the shortest terrestrial path etc. It would be important to have
the support and contribution of the local authorities, which would increase the level of
efficiency and update our geospatial databases. The development of GIS applications
proved to become more and more complex, due to the heterogeneous users’ requirements.
The target group consists of local authorities, e.g. City Council, Prefecture, and
Inspectorate for Emergency Situations – able to take action, to inform, to react and solve
these specific situations. The software may be considered as a starting point for a regional
integrated system, distributed among the branches of the authorized state institutions.
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