Sensing Disaster: How Remote Sensors And GIS Are Used In Emergency Management
Every year, parts of the world are hit with natural disasters that threaten lives and destroy neighborhoods. The first hours of emergency response are critical, and the decisions that response teams and managers make can have life-changing consequences for the people awaiting rescue.
Technology has a role to play in disaster response. Remote sensors and Geographic Information Systems have become vital tools in the race against time to save lives in the wake of a natural disaster.
Sensors See Though The Fog Of Disaster
Weather is one of the biggest causes of natural disasters. Hurricanes on the coast and tornadoes across the plains wreak havoc in the United States every year, threatening the lives of millions and causing billions of dollars of damage. Wildfires are also an annual threat, and the fires in California and close to Los Angeles have the potential to cause a massive loss of life and property damage.
LiDAR is one of the best geospatial solutions for emergency response and management. It can help pinpoint precise locations for rescues, firefighting, and delivering supplies. Using Light Detection And Radar (LiDAR) can help rescue teams and emergency management to get a 3D picture that sees through the smoke and fog of disaster. This helps them to target search and rescue efforts to where they are needed most.
More Data Means Better Results
Remote sensors and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology bring emergency management teams, search, and rescue teams, and governments more data. This can be one of the most precious resources for people organizing relief efforts and rescuing survivors. Data helps people to make informed decisions.
In the aftermath of a natural disaster and in the midst of an emergency, disaster management teams need to make decisions quickly and with confidence. GIS and censoring technology can provide them with information and reliable data that eye-witness reports and photography cannot. Time is critical in disaster response. These technologies combine to reduce the amount of time it takes to make decisions and speed up the response by guiding teams of rescue workers to accurate, pinpointed locations. GIS and sensors have become critical parts of disaster response across the world, and have helped save time, money, resources, and lives.
Reactive Responses Save Lives
The faster a rescue team can move to a vital location, the more lives they can save. This can be achieved from direct rescue efforts, like sending a team to an area where you know there are survivors. Sensor information and geographic information can help target supply drops to areas with groups of stranded and isolated survivors.
Technology cannot prevent natural disasters, but it can help us to react more decisively and effectively. This has helped to reduce the number of deaths caused by hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires across the world. Technology has become a crucial part of disaster response. With the help of GIS and remote sensors, hundreds of lives can be saved, and needless deaths prevented in the wake of natural disasters.
As this technology develops, precious minutes and hours will be cut from disaster response times. Both remote sensors and GIS have had a real impact on the effectiveness of disaster relief and the lives of the people affected by natural disasters. The more they are used in the field, the more people will be saved.
