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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOMATICS AND GEOSCIENCES

Volume 4, No 1, 2013

© Copyright by the authors - Licensee IPA- Under Creative Commons license 3.0

Research article ISSN 0976 – 4380

Submitted on June 2013 published on August 2013 249

Geo-informatics application in response to tsunami disaster and

preparation of development plans for eastern coast of Ampara District, Sri

Lanka Mohamed Rinos M.H. 1, Kaleel M.I.M.2

1-Lecturer in GIS, Department of Geography, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka

2-Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography, Southeastern University of Sri Lanka

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

The natural disasters experienced by south Asian region are water-related either through excess

water or a lack of it namely typhoons and cyclones, flooding, storm surges, tsunamis, drought

and desertification. We are presently positioned at the 21st century with the fast growing trends

in computer technology, information systems and virtual world to obtain data about the

physical and cultural worlds, and to use these data to do research or to solve practical problems.

The current digital and analog electronic devices facilitate the inventory and management of

resources through rapid execution of arithmetic or logical operations. The Geo-informatics;

GIS, remote sensing and GPS are undergoing much improvement and they are able to create,

manipulate, store and analyze spatial data much faster and at rapid rate as compared to

conventional methods. Remote sensing provide the synoptic observations by meteorological

satellites of regional cloud patterns, precipitation distribution and other climatological and

atmospheric parameters, as well as soil moisture-vegetation indices, in near real time from

geosynchronous and polar orbiting satellites, have become important elements in disaster

warning, damage assessment and mitigation. To identify the draw backs of traditional disaster

management process and the potentials of modern technology in disaster management and to

prepare the plans for the study area for future development is the prime objectives of the study.

Keywords: Tsunami, disaster management, Srilanka.

1. Introduction

Asia is world’s most disaster affected region in the world. In Asia every year 46,000 people

killed, 180 million people affected and USD 35 billion of damage caused by disasters (Worlds

Disasters Report – 1997) (figure 1).

Figure 1: Damage caused by disasters

Geo-informatics application in response to tsunami disaster and preparation of development plans for eastern

coast of Ampara District, Sri Lanka

Mohamed Rinos M.H, Kaleel M.I.M

International Journal of Geomatics and Geosciences

Volume 4 Issue 1, 2013 250

Further the pearl drop of Indian Ocean (Sri Lanka) is also one of the countries located in the

disaster prone belt of the Asia Region (World Bank report on disaster response on tsunami -

2004) (Table 01).

Table 1: Disasters in Sri Lanka from 2000 to 2007

No Disaster Year Area Dead Effected

01 Flood 2000 Galle, Matara 02 100,000

02 Flood 2000 Ampara, Batticaloa, Polonnaruwa 03 300,000

03 Cyclone 2000 Ampara, Anuradapura, Batticaloa,

Mannar, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa 05 375,000

04 Flood 2001 Matale Nil 375,000

05 Flood 2002

Ampara, Anuradapura, Batticaloa,

Mannar, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa,

puttalam, Kilinochchi

02 500,000

06 Flood 2003 Galle, Matara, Hambanthota, Nuwara

eliya, Kalutura 296 695,000

07 Flood 2004

Ampara, Anuradapura, Batticaloa,

Mannar, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa,

Vavuniya, Jaffna, Matara

06 200,000

08 Tsunami 2004

Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi,

Ampara, Galle, Matara, Hambantota,

Batticaloa

35399 23176

09 Flood 2005

Colombo, Rathmalana, Gampaha,

Trincomalee, Jaffna, Kilinochchi,

Mullaitivu

06 145,000

10 Flood 2006 Colombo, Rathmalana, Gampaha,

Puttalam, Matara, Badulla, Ratnapura 25 333,000

11 Flood 2007 Walappana, Meepai 18 68281

(Source: World Bank report on disaster response on tsunami - 2004)

The Geo-informatics Technology; GIS, remote sensing and GPS are undergoing much

improvement and they are able to create, manipulate, store and analyze spatial data much faster

and at rapid rate as compared to conventional methods. For any application there are five

generic questions a GIS can answer; location to know what exists at a particular location,

condition to identify locations where certain conditions exists, trends to what has changed since,

patterns and modeling.

1.1 Research questions

The research has been conducted with the forthcoming research questions; whether the

traditional disaster management processes provides accurate information and remedy to the

stakeholders, what are the draw backs of traditional disaster management processes? and why

we need a technological improvement for the disaster management process?

1.2 Research objectives

The research has been designed to achieve the following objectives; to identify the drawbacks

of traditional disaster management process, to identify the potentials of Geo-informatics






applications in disaster management and to prepare plans for future development using Geo-

information technology.

1.3 Disaster management processes and models

Figure 2: Disaster management process

The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) has developed three models for disaster

management especially for Asian region: traditional model, expand & contract model and

crunch model. The traditional approach to disaster management has been regarded as a number

of phased sequences of action or a continuum. These can be represented as a cycle consists of

response, recovery (rehabilitation and reconstruction), prevention or mitigation and

preparedness (Figure 2). Expand-contract model explains disaster management is seen as a

continuous process. There is a series of activities that run parallel to each other rather than as

a sequence. The Disaster Crunch Model is a framework for understanding and explaining the

causes of disaster and adopts a cause-effect perspective. It is a pressure model. Vulnerability

(pressure) is seen as rooted in socio-economic and political processes. These have to be

addressed (released) for disaster risk reduction. The model reveals a progression of

vulnerability. It begins with underlying causes in society that prevents satisfying demands of

the people. The unsafe conditions increase the vulnerability of these communities. They would

have no capacity to face a hazard event. When a hazard event happens these communities

would bear the brunt of impact and their losses would be greater. Their capacity to recover is

minimal.

1.4 Model requirements

On a research context all the above models require continuous monitoring, rapid data

acquisition and accessibility of the affected area, communication, information sharing &

dissemination among the stakeholders, synopticity / bird eye view of the region, accuracy and

analysis of complex data environment.

2. Methodology (Research design)

In order to achieve the objectives intensive field data gathering through questionnaire survey,

field visits by environmental officers, interviewing affected people and stakeholders were

carried out. Further remote sensing images obtained with the aid of International Non-






Government Organization, were used for mapping the study area. Secondary data were also

collected from various institutions to furnish the methodology. The final integrated disaster

management plans were evaluated using ground truth verification (error of omission and error

of commission) and statistical analysis.

3. Results and discussions

Traditional research agenda subjected to a numerous constraints which leads to erroneous

conclusions; use of unreliable data in disaster management, absence of continuous monitoring,

difficulties of getting real time data, variables are point measurements or observations are not

possible to be interpolated to a wider geographical context, input data are not representative of

the temporal dynamics of the earth processes, indiscriminate extrapolation of the localized data

into a wider spatial domain can also lead to erroneous conclusions and large volumes of data

from different sources and at different spatial scales are difficult to process within the modeling

environment.

Figure 3: Flow chart representing the process of research

Geo-informatics Technology facilitates rapid data tool; remote sensing provides the synoptic

observations by meteorological satellites of regional cloud patterns, precipitation distribution

and other climatological and atmospheric parameters, as well as soil moisture-vegetation

indices, in near real time from geosynchronous and polar orbiting satellites, have become

important elements in disaster warning, damage assessment and mitigation. Geographic

Information System has given an excellent environment to incorporate or superimpose the data

from a variety of sources in various scales. Global Positioning System provides the location

detail and mobile mapping facilities to prepare maps and locate the sites specific data.

Agriculture plan for 2010, land cover map, route map 2010, transport plan 2010, environmental

sensitive areas and solid waste management plans for the study area have been prepared for

future development using geo-information technology. A Project “Kalmunai Township

Redevelopment (KTR) was designed with the use of Quick Bird Image of 6 meter resolution.

The KTR project consists of three pilot projects namely coconut belt development,

development of tsunami memorial park and community livelihood initiatives.






Figure 4: Images showing the proposed work plan in the study area






Figure 5: Map showing the redevelopment plan

4. Limitations

Though the research provides the expected objectives the following limitations must be

eliminated in order to maximize the efficiency of the future research; high cost of finer

resolution satellite images, cloud cover (Tropical Region), lack of GIS experts in the region,

lack of coordination between stakeholders, policy changes within project cycle and lack of

adoptability by the people..

5. References

1. Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre, Total Disaster Risk Management, Manual, (2005),

Thailand.

2. Bracken, I. Webster, C. (1990), Information and Technology Including GIS, Routledge,

London.

3. Ian Master and Michael Black More (eds.), (1994), Handling Geographical Information,

Methodology and Applications, Longmans Scientific and Technical, John Wily, New

York.

4. Keith,Smith, (1992), Environmental hazards: assessing risk and reducing disaster.

London, Routledge.

5. Sri Lanka Disaster Management Act, No.13 of (2005), Gazette of the Democratic

Republic of Sri Lanka, Department of Government Printing, 2005.

6. World Bank report on disaster response on tsunami – 2004.

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