For three days, conference delegates and sponsors of the 9th International Conference on Geo-information for Disaster Management (Gi4DM) gathered in Hanoi to advance the use and application of geo-information technology in disaster management. Taking place December 9-11, the event was organized by the Institute of Geography and International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST).
The annual event provides a forum for disaster managers, researchers, data providers, system developers and other stakeholders to discuss challenges, share experiences and new ideas, demonstrate technologies, and assess future research programs. Themed “Earth Observation for Disaster Management,” the conference held sessions on topics such as remote sensing and GIS as tools for disaster management, flood analysis, landslide monitoring and data processing, small satellite programs, drought monitoring, and earthquake and geo-hazards.
As one of the keynote speakers, Pacific Disaster Center’s (PDC) South East Asia Program Advisor Victoria Leat provided an overview of the Center and its DisasterAWARE platform, and described the current Phase 2 Flood Modeling and Early Warning Capacity Development Project (FEW2) in Vietnam. Highlights covered current FEW2 project efforts enhancing capabilities of central and provincial-level decision makers and disaster managers in monitoring assessing flood events, evaluating their likely impacts, and reaching those at risk with warning messages.
FEW2 is a two-year project supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) scheduled to be complete in 2015. The project will result in the expansion and enhancement of VinAWARE, a customized decision support system based on DisasterAWARE.
To find out more about the Gi4DM conference:
• Visit their event site, and
• Look at the event information from UN-SPIDER.
Learn more about the FEW Project with these resources:
• Information from the FEW2 stakeholder meeting,
• The launch of the USAID-supported FEW2 Project,
• Special training in the use of PDC’s DisasterAWARE was conducted in Vietnam,
• News of PDC commitment to DM in Vietnam,
• Visitors came to PDC as part of the Flood Early Warning Phase One project,
• A description of the first use of the VinAWARE decision support system,
• The first Flood Early Warning Project launched in 2009, and
• To see what Dr. Phuc and the DMC are doing, go to www.dmc.gov.vn.
