Importance of Official Geodata in Disaster Risk Management—Case Study of Croatia

Abstract

Disaster risk management (DRM) has always been important, but nowadays, with the increasing number of disasters due to climate changes, it is becoming even more so. Every phase of DRM is heavily reliant on geodata. First of all, each disaster occurs at a specific location, and this location contains geodata, which can be used in DRM, e.g., cadastral data, GNSS data, aerial images, topographic data, elevation data, etc. Geodata are important for making faster and more accurate decisions in disaster situations. It is possible to collect these geodata from many different sources, e.g., the public sector, private sector and citizens. Nevertheless, official geodata coming from competent authorities should be the most accurate and reliable. In this paper, we investigate the importance of official geodata in DRM on several examples from recent disasters in Croatia. Official geodata produced by the Croatian State Geodetic Administration (SGA) were used in managing disasters such as floods, forest fires, earthquakes and war. Our research findings show that DRM is an area in which National Mapping and Cadastral Authorities (NMCAs) should focus more on collecting and sharing geodata and provide more dynamic and innovative products. In these challenging times, more and more geodata are becoming available from different sources, besides official ones. With this plethora of geodata, in order to be relevant and competitive, NMCAs must change their business models and offer more attractive and useful services in order to satisfy the increasing user needs and demands. This paper shows that the SGA in Croatia is on the path towards achieving this goal.