6.1 The Role of Cartography in Disaster Risk Mapping
In the frame of disaster risk mapping, geographic knowledge is crucial for making proper decisions. The importance of spatial information and its potential support for emergency actions were stressed and evaluated by several authors (Kevany 2008; Zlatanova and Li 2008; and Konecny 2006). Among the various ways to transmit, share, and visualize geographic knowledge, cartography is one of the most important. Cartography and geoinformatics have experienced a huge technological shift over the last 30 years. Digital Earth systems have become important foundations for data management related to geographic phenomena.
The application of dynamic cartographic visualization opens the possibilities of adaptive cartography. It allows for creating maps of current risks (e.g., current and predicted flooded area or direction of fire spread), the location of nearby emergency services, or escape routes for the population at risk.
The theory of using adaptive cartography for emergency management geographic support was described by Reichenbacher (2003) and Meng (2005). This method is based on the idea of geographic data visualization automation and adjustment according to the situation, purpose and user’s background (Reichenbacher 2003).
The adaptation of maps can generally be defined by a number of “Ws”—what, when, where, who, and how—as documented in Fig. 15.4. It illustrates the types of contexts that can influence the conditions of disaster risk mapping.
6.2 Use Case Examples
The adaptive mapping principles described in the previous section were demonstrated in several scenarios, e.g., Talhofer et al. 2007, Mulickova et al. 2007. One of the scenarios, called “FLOOD”, aims to improve flood management. A case study was practically verified in the winter of 2011/2012, when one of the field experiments was performed. Based on an analysis of the flood management system in the Czech Republic (Kubíček et al. 2011), five main ACTIVITIES were defined for the Flood Use case (SITUATION):
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PREDICTION AND PROGRESS—development and expected progress of the flood
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TECHNICAL SUPPORT—technical support in the inundated area—support of Flood Security Activities
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RESCUE—the evacuation of citizens
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ORGANIZATION—an organization of powers and means
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PUBLIC INFORMATION—information for the public on flood development, evacuation, etc.
Some of the ACTIVITIES defined above are universal (e.g., organization) and may be performed in different SITUATIONS whereas others (e.g., flood prediction) are situation-specific.
There were a few principal operational ranges defined in the presented use case: FLOODPLAIN for detailed information on the inundation, REGION/DISTRICT/MUNICIPALITY to comply with the hierarchical order of the flood management system, CATCHMENT to monitor the flood at natural borderlines, and SECTION for a detailed view of the municipality.
6.3 Use Case Adaptation Principles
The fact that an object is evaluated from the perspective of a defined context is fundamental to the map symbol adaptation process. The most important aspect of the geographic feature may not be the character of the object as defined by the data source, but what ROLE it plays in the decision-making process. The map symbol is an expression of such a ROLE. Because the data are typically collected for purposes other than emergency management, semantic relations must be defined, and new roles should be specified.
Based on context, the semantic relevance is assessed. Information on the geographic object is relevant if it is necessary for the decision-making process within the context. The relevancy assessment is important from the cartographic point of view since the large number of objects that are visualized on the map limit its legibility and thus the effectiveness of the cartographic visualization as a decision support tool.
When information is relevant, we can assess the degree of relevancy and use other cartography means to increase/decrease the importance of a spatial object or phenomena. The relevancy degree can be assessed for both the semantic and spatial aspects, as illustrated in Fig. 15.5.
The activity and the crisis event itself undergo temporal changes and thus the object properties change as well. For example, if the water level is rising and another house is endangered or a house is already evacuated. These facts should be considered during map symbol design.
6.4 Context Map Composition
The process of data model definition is illustrated in Fig. 15.6. The emergency context defines the basic data model (e.g. the information content of the map), and relevant features of the models BASETOPO, CRITICAL, and CONTEXT SPECIFIC are selected. The basic model is then modified as the context is more precisely specified (i.e., according to the PHASE). The model is generalized and further specified for each level of detail within the operation range.
The examples of a context map for flood management in Fig. 15.7 document different context views of the spatial database. Context maps for three emergency contexts—PREDICTION (A), RESCUE (B, D) and ORGANIZATION (C) are shown. The level of detail corresponds with the operation range “section”. Maps share the same topographic background (i.e., BASETOPO) and, to a certain extent, flood-SPECIFIC features (i.e., the flood extent and buildings in it). The visualizations differ in activity-specific features—i.e., features specific to prediction (flood activity degree, number of affected persons), to the organization (places of intervention and its description) and to the rescue efforts (evacuation zones, routes). The features of the CRITICAL model are not included.
Maps A and B in Fig. 15.7 illustrate the phase of preparation—there is no flooding yet but there is a prediction of flooding. At that time, houses are endangered. In the response phase (Maps C and D), houses are already affected. The visualization changes are based on the progress of the disaster event.
Maps B and D support the same activity (i.e., rescue) but in different phases. The maps display visualization changes based on the progress of the activity. In the preparation phase, the zone of evacuation is marked and buildings for evacuation are selected. In the response phase, all the buildings are already evacuated.
A possible technical implementation is described in detail by Kozel (2009) and Kozel and Štampach (2010).
6.5 Existing Symbol Systems for Disaster Management
Cartography plays a key role in disaster management for a clear representation of the necessary objects and phenomena to decision makers. Upon the occurrence of disasters, crisis management actors need specialized maps to provide a clear idea of the emergency, localization, distribution and characteristics. One of the objectives of cartographers is to design effective representation of spatial information through graphic symbols (Akella 2009). The symbols should indicate information about depicted objects and phenomena without the use of a legend, especially in an emergency. They should also provide users qualitative and quantitative information for the presented object or phenomenon (Konecny and Bandrova 2006).
A number of agencies and organizations related to disaster protection have developed databases, geo-portals and cartographic products for crisis management and adopted their own standards for symbols.
One of the most popular symbol systems for crisis management is the set of 500 humanitarian symbols of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The symbols are freely available at http://reliefweb.int/ and aim to help disaster responders present information about crisis situations quickly and simply (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2012). The symbols can be used to produce humanitarian reports, maps, and websites. The OCHA humanitarian icons are divided into 17 categories. The set of symbols covers both disasters and activities, including the supply of water containers and equipment shelter, access to people in need and protection of civilians. The icons are associative and have a simple structure that allows for easy comprehension.
The Emergency Mapping Symbology (EMS) in Canada was developed under the auspices of GeoConnections, with participation from emergency management organizations across Canada. It was designed to be used by federal, provincial, regional and local organizations involved in the management of major events, disasters, and other incidents where emergency help and security are needed (GeoConnections 2010). The EMS contains a set of symbols and a four-level, hierarchical classification of the entities. The categories include incidents, infrastructures, operations, and aggregates. Symbols in the same category have similar colors. There is also a second version of the symbols adapted for black and white printing.
The Association of Volunteer Emergency Response Teams developed a project called Disaster Response Map Symbols (DRMS) as an effort to compile a standard set of symbols aimed to support the creation of efficient maps for disaster management. It comprises 285 symbols. The DRMS contains 5 families of symbols in a single font, including vehicles, infrastructure, mobile/temporary services and teams, events, ships and some special symbols (Association of Volunteer Emergency Response Teams 2009).
Another popular symbol system is the symbology developed by federal, state, and local agencies in the USA working together under the auspices of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Homeland Security Working Group. The symbol system includes symbols and their definitions for the categories of incidents, natural events, operations, and infrastructures. The structure of each category and a damage-operational status hierarchy were developed using color and frame shapes with line patterns (Homeland Security Working Group 2017). The symbols are designed to be presented in color or black and white formats.
The cartographic symbols should have clear and short definitions to be used in a map legend. One very important characteristic is that they are situated on a map and should indicate qualitative and quantitative information about the represented object, phenomena or process to users.
Considering the advantages and disadvantages of existing emergency symbol systems, a new symbol system for the needs of disaster management was developed at the Laboratory on Cartography of the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia. The Symbol System for Disaster Management (SSDM) was developed to support thematic mapping for early warning and crisis management and operational activities of all participants in disaster management, as well as to help citizens understand specialized emergency maps. The SSDM was designed to be useful for the general public as well as for professionals.
6.6 Opportunities for New Disaster Risk Mapping Technologies
The technological shifts in cartography and geoinformatics were on the level of data analysis and visualization, bringing new data sources from different sensors and mapping strategies. One of the most notable examples of this is cell phone data.
Data derived from active cell phones or active SIM cards for some administrative units are becoming available for various uses (see an example from the Czech Republic, the O2 Liberty API, https://www.o2.cz/podnikatel/liberty-api/). Analysis of the number of SIM cards and existing demographic data has opened a novel set of possible applications for emergency management and disaster risk mapping. The availability of cell phone data enables the following:
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More accurate estimation of the actual number of inhabitants within the administrative unit and their temporal rhythms (example on Brno, Czech Republic in Kubíček et al. 2018). Comparing such an analysis with the existing census data and annual demographic reports (see Fig. 15.8), the administrative units can be further divided into several typological units (with the maximum during working days, weekends, etc.) In addition, the population estimations can be used to better plan the evacuation and other inhabitant-sensitive activities during emergencies.
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The cell phone data analysis often reveals regular trends as described above and some irregular peaks and peculiarities. These high concentrations of inhabitants are connected with cultural and sports events such as concerts and music festivals.
6.7 Future Directions—New Symbol System for Disaster Management (SSDM)
The examples, approaches and case studies described above provide various opportunities for future development and applications such as the development of virtual and augmented reality tools and devices. The Digital Earth concept can be also understood as a virtual reality system (Çöltekin et al. 2019).
The new cartographic Symbol System for Disaster Management (SSDM) was created in Bulgaria after proposing a classification structure of represented objects and phenomena, construction and design of symbols, implementation in real situations and use in map compiling for disaster preparedness.
6.7.1 Classification Structure
The SSDM consists of a 4-level hierarchical classification of objects and phenomena concerning disaster management and a set of 115 symbols. At the highest level, the objects are divided into 5 categories: disasters, infrastructure, protection services and safety infrastructure, affected people and infrastructure, and operational sites and activities. Each category is divided into classes, which are divided into subclasses that consist of objects and phenomena (Fig. 15.9).
6.7.2 Design of Symbols
The ability of symbols to transmit information and the way they are perceived by map users are critically important. The design process of the SSDM started with consideration of the rules of construction and use of symbol systems, examination of the relations between objects and phenomena, their classification and specifics. The design was accompanied by optimal requirements to achieve readability, expressiveness and visibility, taking into account modern technologies and techniques in cartography. It is challenging to choose graphical variables so that all the symbols can be quickly and easily perceived and are associative and properly referred to their respective categories.
All categories of the SSDM are distinguishable by their shape and color. The symbols consist of white pictograms and shapes with various background colors. The choice of background colors, except to achieve clear distinctiveness, depends on the message that the symbols should express to the users. A psychological perception of the colors was taken into account. The different shapes for the categories aim to avoid potential problems resulting from low light or black and white printing.
Each category has an individual letter code for easy identification: A—disasters; B—infrastructure; C—protection services and safety infrastructure; D—affected people and infrastructure; and E—operational sites and activities. Each object and its respective symbol have an alphanumeric code formed by the category code and the serial number of the object in its category.
Figure 15.10 presents part of the symbol system, including the alphanumeric code, graphic symbol and a brief description.
The status of objects in “infrastructure” and “protection services and safety infrastructure” in a crisis situation is represented by a combination of symbols in category B (infrastructure) and category C (protection services and safety infrastructure), with symbols representing destroyed, affected and unaffected objects of category D shown in a reduced size (Fig. 15.11).
6.7.3 Maps for Disaster Protection
The new Symbol System for Disaster Management was applied in experimental development of training maps supporting actions in emergencies and in a series of maps for disaster protection at local and regional levels. The main tasks of local and regional disaster protection plans are the analysis and assessment of disaster risks, prevention and mitigation, early warning, and coordination of disaster management activities. Participants in these activities need specialized geographic information to support concrete actions.
The SSDM was applied in the production of base maps of the municipality of Troyan, Bulgaria, at a scale of 1:50000 (Fig. 15.12) and Troyan at a scale of 1:10000 (Fig. 15.13). The maps were compiled according to predefined elements of map content and aim to support activities described in the disaster protection plan of the municipality.
The main features of hydrography, settlements, infrastructure (including transport, telecommunication, energy, manufacturing and water infrastructure) as well as services and facilities related to disaster protection (such as hospitals, shelters, and helicopter pads) are represented by the SSDM. Based on the main disaster protection maps, a series of maps for disaster management in case of earthquakes, floods, fire, and industrial accidents were created. Additional information was provided for some features including the object name and description, number of beds in shelters, dangerous industrial objects, type of stored materials, and fire-fighting equipment. Infrastructure and services/facilities for protection are represented by the symbols in Category B and Category C (Fig. 15.13). These maps also support predisaster activities, including assessment and preparedness.
In a crisis situation base maps can be processed into rapid and reference maps presenting the type and location of disaster(s) by adding symbols from Category A and symbols for affected people and affected infrastructure in Category D (Fig. 15.14). The symbols for operational sites and activities (Category E) could be useful for damage assessment and recovery in the postdisaster stage.
The map content and displayed information of operational situations could help support the responsible authorities and individuals to make timely and effective decisions. Such maps could allow for identification of the affected areas in municipalities or regions, and provide significant contributions to population protection, mitigation and evacuation planning operations.
Cartography plays a key role in the main stages of disaster management. Efficient and cooperative preventive and protective activities of authorities require appropriate and easily understood geographic information. The use of a standard system of associative symbols can facilitate significantly cooperative disaster management strategies at local, regional and international levels.