One of WebMapSolutions areas of focus is building systems which help to improve the management of disasters. As the frequency and impact of disasters increases, due to phenomena such as global warming, the need for improved tools and systems becomes ever greater. New technologies now available are greatly helping software companies such as WebMapSolutions develop mobile, centralized systems which are improving both disaster relief efforts and disaster recovery. Let’s look at some of the new GIS solutions for disaster management.
Disaster Relief
This is a coordinated multi-agency response to reduce the impact of a disaster and its long-term results. Relief activities include rescue, relocation, service repair, providing temporary shelter and emergency health care. Time is of the essence in this phase. Disaster agencies are both trying to understand the situation on the ground, and provide immediate assistance and relief to those in the affected area.
After a year of working with ArcGIS Online (AGOL), we had a round table last week among our GIS developers and asked the question “what are the 6 things you most like about ArcGIS Online”. The results of our informal poll are below:
1) Web Maps – we all agreed the use of a single web map to express all map layers was a big deal. In the past too much work was needed by the developer to reach out to different sources for layers, and to deal individually with each layer (projection etc) before it was displayed. The web map has simplified that process, they form form the base for Web and mobile maps and development. They can also be embedded in a web page, rather like a youtube video, see our contact page for an example. Now that is cool.
2) Authentication and Groups – being able to control who has access to your data was often a request our clients had when it came to ArcGIS Server development. It meant we had to develop custom authentication services. The ArcGIS Online Portal has authentication built in. Marvelous. Our code is simpler, and our clients have a greater level of control over data access.
We’ve spent some time on this blog discussing ArcGIS Online. As we have said, we see this new mapping platform as a major step forward. But detailed discussion of the advantages misses the most central point; ArcGIS Online brings simplicity. Users, organisations, developers all will benefit. We thought is worthwhile discussing areas we see ArcGIS Online simplifying:
Organizing, Administering and Sharing Geo-Data with ArcGIS Online within Organizations
1) Groups and users – Online offers a slew of ways to organise data into groups, and share with a specific group of users. If your data is confidential, then host Online behind your firewall.
2) Data Conversion – We are often approached with questions around mobile apps which allow both access to and editing of shapefiles. Sure it can be done, but there is much time and effort needed to achieve, what we often think is a less than perfect solution. With ArcGIS Online shapefiles are converted to interactive feature layers. If these are generated as hosted feature layers, editing is now possible.
We’ve spent nearly a year working with ArcGIS Online. Our view is that it is a major step forward. We’ve been asked why we take this view. In short because this is a mapping platform like no other.
Mapping Platforms
Let’s start with what is a mapping platform. Put simply:
“A web mapping platform is a toolkit that helps you build a web mapping application.”
There are many such platforms available in the open source world, more details available at this link:
GIS has been a niche. From desktop to Web, it has been a technology and acronym that few understand. We have long hoped the use of the technology would broaden and that the acronym would be less used. Many GIS-focused organisations, including ESRI, have begun to change the language their externally facing folk now speak. This is in part due to ArcGIS Online. Web maps, which are the raw material of ArcGIS Online, have a very broad appeal. We can talk, and will in later posts, about intelligent maps, story maps. Maps and geo-data targeted at non-GIS users.
