Implementation of integrated geospatial platform, database, and application for disaster risk management in Uttarakhand

Natural Hazard possesses greater risks due to increasing exposures and vulnerabilities of the elements-at-risk and the this may even be further aggravated as a result of climate change. For effective and efficient decisions-making during a disaster, a proper flow of information is vital for carrying out the evacuation, rescue and response operations. A Decision Support System (DSS) was developed and being implemented in the state of Uttarakhand in India as a proactive strategy for disaster risk reduction. The state of Uttarakhand is primarily exposed to earthquakes, floods, and landslides (in addition to avalanches, hailstorm, glacial lake outburst floods, lightning storms, and forest fires) and the platform can create a Common Operating Picture for an effective response. It includes hazard monitoring, alerting, and responding to incidences. The platform was developed as a user-friendly and collaborative platform to support the Emergency Operation Center of the state of Uttarakhand to support informed decision-making. The DSS was implemented in a web-based platform with the integration of a wide range of geospatial data from different sources. Along with existing baseline data, weather forecast data and field-observed data were integrated with OGC services. Further, other available Geospatial data were, extracted, transformed, standardized and integrated into the database. A system administration window was developed for the data linking process and uploading of all the available data. We reviewed the available existing best practices and methodologies for developing and operating the DSS to come up with a workflow for disaster monitoring, evacuation planning, shelter management etc. within the DSS.