The document discusses sources of spatial data for use in disaster management. It identifies several free data sources that can be used, including MODIS, ASTER and Landsat satellite imagery, as well as global vector datasets for administrative boundaries, roads, rivers, and more. It emphasizes that a significant amount of geospatial data is available for free from government agencies and archives. While some commercial data may be expensive, it is possible to find suitable lower or no-cost alternatives with sufficient resolution for many disaster management applications.

1. Date: 14th November, 2009 Application of GIS/ RS in Disaster/ Hazards Management2. Sources of Spatial Data Facilitated By: Muhammad Qadeer

2. Geographic Information System… It is simply geography + Information  It tells you what is where and helps you for better and informed decisions + =

3. Why Use GIS for Disaster Management Most of the data requirements of disaster management are of spatial nature All phases of disaster or emergency management require variety of data sets from variety of sources At planning stages, we need to know what is lying where, in what condition and what are their associated vulnerabilities For planning, we need to quantify what is the level of risk of various hazards and what are the elements at risk in any particular area i.e. a district During emergency, its critical to have right data at right time

4. GIS in Emergency Management Phases Emergency management programs begin with locating and identifying potential emergency problems. Using a GIS, officials can pinpoint hazards and begin to evaluate the consequences of potential emergencies or disasters. When hazards are viewed with other map data, emergency management officials can begin to formulate mitigation, preparedness, response, and possible recovery needs. GIS can highlight the elements at risk very easily and effectively. Public safety personnel can focus on where mitigation efforts will be necessary, where preparedness efforts must be focused, where response efforts must be strengthened, and the type of recovery efforts that may be necessary. Before an effective emergency management program can be implemented, thorough analysis and planning must be done. GIS facilitates this process by allowing planners to view the appropriate combinations of spatial data through computer-generated maps.

5. Applications of GIS in Disaster Management Preparation and validation of baseline data of geographical locations of project area and settlements Preparation of Hazard Maps Vulnerability assessment Risk Prediction and Estimation of Loss Overall Working Area Location of Human Settlements in Dist. Rajanpur

6. Applications of GIS in Disaster Management Vulnerability assessment Maps Risk Prediction and Estimation of Loss Information Dissemination

7. Some Advanced Application may include: Simulations and Modeling Logistics Management Shortest and optimum routing

8. Common Datasets Required Administrative boundaries; provinces, districts and tehsils (union councils if needed), vector data Human and Situation Data, location of settlements, hazardous locations, potential of risk and elements at risk including fields, crops, social infrastructure and buildings i.e. roads and schools Satellite images, satellite and aerial photographs showing active river basins and other land-use features on earth Pragmatic/Thematic Data, location of hazard by category and their severity

9. Costs Involved GIS development always involves huge costs; it need costly software and sophisticated machines… The above statement is nothing more than a myth Concept of open source GIS for DM is rapidly emerging now a days and most of the raster and GIS datasets are available free of cost. The need is to learn and explore where we can get right data at right cost and how sensibly that RAW data can be used for creating valued product after processing Some of the required vector and raster data sets can be collected freely just through a fast internet connection while other might cost 10-25$ per sq.km

10. Costs Involved There are various free software packages of GIS available which can meet our needs well, but more professional range from US$ 3800 for ArcView to US$16000 for ArcInfo.

11. Facilitated By: Muhammad Qadeer Sources of Spatial Data Date: 14th November, 2009 Courtesy: Dr. Norman Kerle (ITC)

12. Contents

13. How do I go about getting data??

14. Is it that easy???

15. Identify data type needed (depends on questionsasked; e.g. images, maps, GIS, etc.) Identification of suitable data is, of course, reliant on your understanding of both the problem at hand, as well as geo information science You have to understand fully what information you require to answer given questions, what data source can provide it, and how you can extract it from raw data, and also how to combine that information with other data sources Realise that vast amounts of data exist in archives and are captured by different sensors every day; at the same time we have to deal with an increasing number of data (and sensor) types Your understanding of the scientific and technical issues also allows you to decide the (I) date of acquisition and (II) number of datasets in question

16. Identify possible cost Some spatial data can be obtained for free, others are very expensive The overall cost depends on several aspects: Data type and extent of study area Number of datasets (e.g. need for repeat datasets) Need for raw or processed (value-added) data Availability of reference data (e.g. existing GIS databases) Need for use of commercial image data (Landsat, Ikonos, Quickbird, etc.) Need for rapid custom image acquisition Need for ground crews for collection of additional information Need for outside special resources (experts, databases, etc.)

17. Identify relevant source and search for appropriate data The multitude of available catalogues makes this difficult Different data types tend to be distributed by different sources Some issues: Raw image data vs. thematic data (e.g. vegetation indices), catalogues for both (e.g thematic information based on geoinformatics [“disaster databases”] Global vs. regional vs. local data Sensor type: satellite vs. airborne vs. ground-based Raster data (images) vs. vector data Specific data types, such as laser scanning data or digital elevation data (DEM)

18. Free Data There are many free datasets available Rule-of-thumb is that cost goes up with increasing spatial resolution of image data, and with detail of auxiliary datasets (maps, GIS layers) Government-owned sensors are more likely to provide free (or cheap) data Cost tends to go down with age of the data Also try governmental agencies or NGOs in your country for data Educational facilities sometimes get access to free data (e.g. ASTER) – scope for collaboration? Let’s look at some sources of free data (though keep in mind that the list is not complete)

23. 30 m resolution for the whole world GASTER- DEM

25. 4. ASTER - Advanced Space borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Flying on board of TERRA since 1999 Excellent 15-channel data Free for educational use! Description at http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ Best place to get data is the Earth Observing System Data Gateway (you also get many other data types there) ASTER data can also be used to create digital elevation models (vertical accuracy of approximately 25 meters, under some circumstances 11 meters) On how to so that, see http://www.pcigeomatics.com/support_center/tech_papers/dem_aster.pdf Data access: http://edcimswww.cr.usgs.gov/pub/imswelcome/

29. You can also check on GLOVIS: http://glovis.usgs.gov/

30. Data Preview

31. 5. MODIS - Moderate Resolution ImagingSpectroradiometer Flying on board of TERRA and AQUA 36 channels, acquiring data in different spatial resolutions (250, 500 and 1000 m) – excellent for synoptic/regional studies (2330 km) (flooding, forest fires) Description at http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov Best place to get data is also the Earth Observing System Data Gateway, also for free! Produce a whole suite of standard products, though mostly for vegetation mapping (see http://modisland.gsfc.nasa.gov/products/products.asp?ProdFamID=6, http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/modis/dataproducts.asp)

32. 6. Landsat MSS/TM data – 35 years of data

35. Alternatively: USGS Earth Explorer http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov

36. 7. SPOT Vegetation SPOT - Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre Launched in March 1998, altitude of 820 km Wide swath of 2200 km, and resolution of 1.165 km Observes the entire Earth every day Has an additional band to the standard MS sensor (0.43 to 0.47μm) http://www.spot-vegetation.com/

37. SPOT - Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre Free SPOT Vegetation products can be obtained from http://free.vgt.vito.be/ However, these are archived data that are at least 3 months old More recent data are available directly from SPOT

38. Other Sources

39. MODIS Images for whole Pakistan (250 m resolution) http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/

40. GeoCover2000 Data for whole Pakistan https://zulu.ssc.nasa.gov/mrsid/mrsid.pl

42. Countries,

43. 2nd Level Administration Boundaries,

44. Islands,

45. Major Rivers & lakes,

46. Time Zones,

49. Railways,

50. Water bodies,

52. In Summary There are many sources for geo-data Many datasets are free of charge, others are very expensive For many applications and research questions, different datasets can be used, and much money can be saved by choosing the cheapest option If your application does not require the most current data, check for cheaper archived data Check with other governmental agencies or organization you have contacts with for already available data Look into options to get discounts (e.g. for educational use, as PI for data validation, etc.) The overview presented here is not exhaustive, there are many more sources of geo-data