Sdi Conceptual Modeling for Disaster Management

One of the main challenges of disaster management concerns to proper management of information. In more details, while most of the information required for disaster management has spatial component or location, current studies show that there are different problems with collection, dissemination, access and usage of spatial data/information for disaster management. The mentioned problems become more serious during disaster response with its time-sensitive and dynamic nature where reliable and up-to-date information must be available to decision-makers and managers. It is suggested that Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) as an initiative in spatial data management can facilitate disaster management by providing a better way for managing spatial data. In order to investigate this suggestion, a research project was conducted in Iran. In this research, an SDI conceptual model and a web-based system were developed for disaster management. The developed model and system were tested in an earthquake disaster response manoeuvre with collaboration of different organizations from disaster management community. The results of the manoeuvre showed that a web-based system using an SDI framework facilitates disaster management and also improves its quality. This paper aims to describe the outcomes of the research project.