The impact of natural disasters (earthquakes,
floods, windstorms, landslides etc.,) to the global environment
is becoming increasingly severe over the last decades. The reported
number of disasters has dramatically increased, as well as the cost
to the global economy and the number of people affected. The international
community has become aware of the necessity to increase the work
on disaster mitigation.In order to carry out effective measures
for risk reduction, information should be available on the hazards
that threaten a certain area, the elements at risk (population,
buildings, infrastructure, economic activities) that are exposed
to these hazards, the vulnerability of these elements at risk and
an estimation on the expected losses and risk. Hazard, vulnerability
and risk assessment is a complex task, requiring a large amount
of spatial data. Many of the input data can be obtained using Remote
Sensing. For hazard modeling and risk analysis the use of Geographic
Information Systems (GIS is Sensing and GIS for natural hazard and
risk assessment, with case studies from different countries. |
