A review of challenges and solutions in adopting a participatory geographical information system for disaster management

Abstract

Disaster management is a critical component in mitigating the impacts of various natural, and other disasters such as floods, cyclones, forest fires, earthquakes, disease spreading etc. The primary aim of disaster management in a specific region is to empower the local neighborhood to higher determine its natural danger instincts and therefore migrate closer to options for lowering that risk. Conventional techniques of disaster management are majorly driven by the quantitative information collected from various events. Some of the recent techniques have used more advanced data-driven and non-linear approaches such as machine learning, and spatial analysis tools such as GIS for making more informed decisions. However, these techniques cannotoften represent the dynamics of demographic units, and event impact in small regions due to a multitude of reasons such as lack of data, equipment, more generalized approaches, etc. Participatory Geographic Information System (PGIS) overcomes some of the limitations present in the traditional techniques by incorporating local communities as stakeholders in making various policies, distributing risk information etc. PGIS has been adopted in various fields such as land cover planning, agriculture information systems, data collection systems etc. Other than these applications, the effectiveness of PGIS in disaster management in handling various natural disasters such as floods, cyclones, forest fires, and disease spread has been demonstrated in several studies. However, in manyplaces, PGIS is not yet evolved and its implementation is still at the infancy level due to several reasons. Despite many advantages, PGIS presents many problems comprising insufficient infrastructure, training facilities, engagement and education of the community members towards a combined decision, etc. therefore provision of necessary infrastructure can improve the overall impact of implementing PGIS. Involving the local community and educating them on the right approach for the success of PGIS is a complex task. Further, the conflict of opinions between technical personnel and locals can be another factor that limits the usage. However, from the results of various studies, the advantages of PGIS implementation can outweigh the limitations of implementation.