IST-Africa 2013 Conference Proceedings Paul Cunningham and Miriam Cunningham (Eds) IIMC International Information Management Corporation, 2013 ISBN: 978-1-905824-38-0 Copyright © 2013 The authors www.IST-Africa.org/Conference2013 Page 1 of 9 Geospatial Information Technology – Essential for Emergency Management Karel CHARVÁT 1 , Tomáš MILDORF 1 , Jáchym ČEPICKÝ 1 , Radovan HILBERT 2 1 Czech Centre for Science and Society, Radlicka 28, Prague, 150 00, Czech Republic Tel: + 420 605033596, Email: ccss@ccss.cz 2 EPTISA, Spain, Email: rhilbert@eptisa.com Abstract: The paper presents the main technical features of the Electronic Regional Risk Portal (ERRA) as a geospatial information technology that will support emergency management in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The portal prototype provides solid features for all phases of emergency management. ERRA should protect communities by coordinating and integrating all activities necessary to build, sustain, and improve the capability to mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from threatened or actual natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or other man-made disasters. Keywords: risk management, risk atlas, geoportal, web services, PPRD East, geospatial information technology, disasters. CCSS Czech Centre for Science and Society EIF European Interoperability Framework ENPI European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument ERRA Electronic Regional Risk Atlas EU European Union GIS Geographic Information System GIT Geoinformation Technology HTML HyperText Markup Language INSPIRE Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community ISO International Organisation for Standardization OGC Open Geospatial Consortium OWS OGC Web Services PPRD East Prevention, Preparedness and Response to Man-made and Natural Disasters in the ENPI East Region RSS Rich Site Summary SDI Spatial Data Infrastructure SLD Styled Layer Descriptor WFS Web Feature Service WMS Web Map Service WYSIWYG What you see is what you get 1. Introduction “Emergency management protects communities by coordinating and integrating all activities necessary to build, sustain, and improve the capability to mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from threatened or actual natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or other man-made disasters.” [4] Emergency management is defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency [4] as “the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters.” Emergency management comes to an attention of policy and decision makers with a clear objective – to