Collaborative post-disaster damage mapping via geo web services

To mitigate the consequences of increasingly frequent disasters across the globe, better real-time collaborative post-disaster management tools are needed. The International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’, in conjunction with intermediary agencies, provides for space resources to be available to support disaster response. It is widely seen as a successful example of international humanitarian assistance following disasters. However, the Charter is also facing challenges with respect to lack of collaboration and validation, with the information flow being largely mono-directional. It is, therefore, fundamental to move away from static map data provision to a more dynamic, distributed and collaborative environment. Geo Web Services can bring together vast stores of data from heterogeneous sources, along with geospatial services that can interact in a loosely coupled environment and be used to create more suitable information for different stakeholders. The aim of this chapter is to evaluate the relevance and importance of Geo Web Services in the disaster management domain and present a suitable Geo Web Service architecture for a collaborative post-disaster damage mapping system. We focus particularly on satellite image-based post-disaster support situations, and present our ideas for a prototype based on this architecture with possibilities for User Generated Content.