Use of technology and tools like GIS and Remote Sensing in disaster management can help to mitigate and reduce the impact of disasters. Throw some light on their application.

Disaster Management is a proactive approach to reduce and manage risk and vulnerabilities associated with an adverse event, with the potential to cause devastating damage to the community beyond its coping capacity.

GIS and Remote Sensing:

• Using these Technologies; the satellites and drones can map out the topography of the area and create models.
• Hazard zonation mapping – It was done after the 2013 Uttarakhand flood, to identify weak areas and reinforce them.
• Crowd management is also possible; as if the possibility of landslide in an area increases then the roads can be closed.
• In Odisha and Bengal, the low lying areas are surveyed, which are prone to floods due to sea water incursion or river overflow of Ganga, Mahanadi, Subarnarekha or Vamsadhara.
• In the Western Ghats of Maharashtra and Karnataka, rockslide prone areas are mapped.
• Earthquake fault speeds can be marked, e.g. Indian plate – NNE (15mm/year), thus construction can be avoided in these areas, such as Terai region of India and Nepal.

Way forward:

The NDMA, 2005 and NDMP, 2016 Acts are enacted to enable India to fulfill obligations under the Sendai Framework 2015.