Together We Stand

[ 22 ] often security restrictions to which they cannot conform. Specialized solutions are difficult, expensive and narrow. DisasterAWARE overcomes these and many other obstacles by incorporating international best-practice methodologies and technologies for data acquisition, hazard modelling, risk and vulnerability assessment, mapping, visualiza- tion and communications into one system. Additionally, the system’s interoperable base platform is adaptable to support secure environments. When PDC staff began gathering in Hawaii in 1995, they joined in partnership with State Civil Defense working on the Pacific Regional Emergency Management Information System, a ground-breaking system to use computers to collect, store and communicate disaster information. New technolo- gies were subsequently developed, each building on the ones before. Then, in a 2003/04 disaster early warning collaboration with the Caribbean region’s disaster management community, PDC delivered an initial working prototype of what was called the Integrated Decision Support System. The following year, partnering with the National Disaster Warning Center — Thailand, the platform was both custom- ized as a tsunami early-warning tool and re-imagined as an all-hazards disaster management technology. Since then, DisasterAWARE has been continuously enhanced as part of PDC’s annual work plan under funding from the US Government and others. Important enhancements have included an ‘internationalization’ of the user interface to support non-English languages. At present, the interface is available in Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Korean and Spanish, helping to ensure its effective use in as many parts of the world as possible. PDC hosts and operates two distinct web-accessible versions of DisasterAWARE at its headquarters: Global Hazards Atlas and EMOPS (Emergency Operations), both provided at no cost to users. EMOPS, incorporating some special holdings and features for disaster management professionals, requires a registered account and password. A free-to-download mobile app version, Disaster Alert, extends monitoring and alerting capabilities to iPhone, iPad and Android mobile devices. Custom systems ‘powered by DisasterAWARE’ have been developed for PDC partners around the Pacific, and more are in development or under consideration. Deployed systems include DisasterAWARE for Thailand (2006); VinAWARE for Viet Nam (2011); Disaster Monitoring and Response System for ASEAN at the AHA Centre (2012); and InAWARE for Indonesia (2014). Installations in 2016 will include Nepal and the Philippines. Generally, these custom deployments include both hazard and baseline data from relevant national agencies, and localization of the user interface to support early warning, disaster relief and humanitarian assistance missions. Deployments of custom systems are only possible through partnerships. That is not just PDC and a national disaster management agency, but includes numerous data provid- ers, national and often subnational disaster management organizations, and other civil and military stakehold- ers. The value of partnering is very well exemplified by A visualization of recent tropical cyclone tracks and storm intensity zones on the PDC-hosted EMOPS version of DisasterAWARE Source: PDC T ogether W e S tand