The use of Geographic Information Systems in floodplain emergency management in Tasmania
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are playing an ever-increasing role in our society with the area of flood emergency management being no exception. The nature of flood emergency management is spatial, so it is logical that GIS have the potential to assist management operations.
Floods stand out from most natural diasters in that they can be modelled and predicated, and so effective, planning, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery plans can be made. Sophisticated hydrology and hydraulic modelling software have been available for the past decade or so, and are in use extensively. Hardcopy Inundation maps and flood evacuation manuals have typically been the product of the studies carried out.
In 2005 Hydro Tasmania Consulting sponsored a University of Tasmania Honours project titled “Investigating and Implementing GIS in floodplain emergency management in Tasmania”. This thesis sought to investigate the potential for GIS to add value to typical hardcopy inundation maps and flood evacuation manuals. The aim of this project was to develop a GIS framework that would increase the state’s capacity to handle flooding disasters. Department of Primary Industries and Water (DPIW) Emergency Services GIS and the State Emergency Service were closely involved in the project. The outputs from the project were a flood emergency management system design and system prototype.
The State Emergency Service, Emergency Services GIS and Hydro Tasmania Consulting are currently working together to move the prototype into an operational system.
The system modules currently under development will assist the State Emergency Service in flood incident response and planning. Flood Inundation and evacuation data will be made available through a web based GIS interface. The system will have the capacity to handle multiple flood incidents in parallel, allowing for the scenario where flood response operations are in action in several river basins at the same time. Amongst other functionality an evacuation management tool will also be developed. This will assist in coordinating evacuation operations utilising data typically stored in flood evacuation management plans.