Transcript Slide 1
Utilizing GEON Cyberinfrastructure for United Nations Disaster Relief Efforts Mark Gahegan, GeoVISTA, Penn State Suha Ulgen, UN Field Information Support Dogan Seber, San Diego Supercomputer Center Dave Almeida, Sean Ahern, Hunter College, CUNY. When disaster strikes… • UN assembles team of suitably experienced scientists and field-workers and • the required support infrastructure (generators, wireless bubbles, hardened computing facilities, life support infrastructure) • Loads up a Hercules cargo plane – Time to deployment… 48 hours min. Why are disasters so disastrous? • Crisis response has several unique characteristics (van Borkulo et al., 2005): – There is a complex brew of many actors from different disciplines that all need to coordinate; – These actors are under extreme stress; – Uncertainty in the information associated with the crisis leads to intuitive decisions being made in an adhoc fashion; – External pressures from politics and the media warp the process; – Not enough care is taken in analyzing what went right and what went wrong, after the fact. What needs to change? • To deal more effectively with disasters we need data, software, planning and community in place, locally, beforehand – Waiting until a disaster happens is, in fact a second disaster – How can we make data and software available locally? – How can we make plans? – How can we build community? Typology of decision-making Known ▬ knowable ▬ complex ▬ chaotic Science Disaster UN field systems project A three-stage effort: 1. Proof of concept investigation & evaluation (3 months) – Review of past disaster management efforts – Evaluation of existing GIS systems and components – Creation of ‘proof-of-concept’ systems 2. Detailed needs assessment, design and implementation 3. Extensive testing, documentation and evaluation Technological reasons why disaster management fails • A lack of suitable software in place, • Poor understanding of the technology by responders, • A disconnect between the producers of geospatial data and the consumers of it, • Poor integration of the technology (systems and data) • Poor use of information gleaned from this technology into decision making and • Data gaps, scale inconsistencies, data currency and lack of meta-data. Social/political reasons • Local data, software and expertise are not made available to those who need it • No established culture of data sharing – And often no protocols for data sharing • No understanding of who the local experts are and what they know • Systems (technology and people) are not in place before a disaster, nor do they stay in place afterwards Some additional key requirements • Must use open standards • Must be free or very low cost and available beforehand • Must run across multiple platforms and operating systems— – the developing world tends to use Linux, not Windows • Must support a variety of communication options Open Systems • Does not mean ‘open source’! – There are many very useful open-source tools available, though none of them do it all – but they do not integrate with each other • Open systems equates better with ‘open standards’—the use of communitydeveloped data formats, interfaces, models (in this case OGC standards) – Whether or not the source code is publicly available! Capabilities & compatibilities GeoTools GeoServe r uDig Geo Widgets GeoAPI Map Server GV Studio Stars / Geoda Ossim GRASS GeoTools …… 333 333 333 -33 333 333 122 111 311 …… 333 333 -33 333 333 122 111 311 …… 333 -33 333 333 122 111 311 …… -33 333 333 122 111 311 …… -33 -33 -22 -11 -11 …… 333 122 111 311 …… 122 111 311 …… 122 122 …… 132 GeoServer uDig GeoWidgets GeoAPI MapServer GV Studio Stars / Geoda Ossim …… GRASS Data compatibility 0-3 Language compatibility 0-3 System compatibility 0-3 Thin clients: MapBuilder Google Earth Thick clients: uDig, ArcMap Next… • Create dynamic symbology and associated mapping tools that will enable field-workers to share information more effectively • Create workflows and connection-points for GIS and visualization functionality • Add in exploratory tools… – (see ConceptVista and Improvise demos) Going to India (twice) • A group of us from GEON went to U. Hyderabad to help establish a GEON Point of Presence (PoP) node, and to help train local scientists • I visited again 3 months afterwards… How can CI help? • Pop nodes can do more than act as data portals: – Increase in collaboration among university and regional government – Focused national science workshops organized by local community – Increase in the number of applications by research students seeking training – Increase in international outlook and initiatives for international collaboration. • In short, they can bring communities together, encourage data sharing, create a repository of expertise. – And now we have some funding for US-India science collaboration A role for GEON? • GEON can contribute towards disaster preparedness in three important ways: – By providing a free, uniform infrastructure and software stack to communities of scientists and other experts who have relevant expertise. – By encouraging the development of communities created around GEON nodes that are deployed in developing countries. – By hosting UN datasets and software centrally, and facilitating a UN-GEON node, that can be deployed anywhere in the world at short notice. – GEON will gain as well—better worldwide coverage, and some new GIS and spatial analysis tools, Conclusions: How to build communities in other places? • Needs a small investment in hardware • Needs a bigger investment in community building • Needs folks from GEON & GeoInformatics community to contribute their time and expertise • Needs funding agencies to contribute • Consistent with the aims of GEON—Better science is also an outcome! End • Questions? Suggestions?