Pilot Verification and Updating of Cartographical Databases for the Government Information and Analytical System on Emergency Situations

According to the UN data, many countries throughout the world incur structural losses equating to more than 2-4% of their gross domestic product yearly. Ukraine's yearly expenditures for the mitigation of the Chornobyl accident are more than 2% of its total gross domestic product. Economic crisis, accompanied by increasingly obsolete equipment and a reduction of production modernization and renovation, increase the risk of a disaster.

In this regard, the issue of forecasting and assessing the consequences of emergency situations is now among the key objectives of work done by the Ministry of Emergency Situations and Chornobyl Affairs of Ukraine (MESCAU). The designers of the Governmental Information-Analytical System of Emergency Situations (GIAS ES), created by request of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and MESCAU, decided to use analyzing and modeling capabilities of geoinformation systems to create predictive modeling complexes for early warning, minimization and mitigation of emergency situation consequences.

ECCOM Co was the main project implementer in 2001, and ULRMC was the key scientific and methodological support provider to the project.

"The modeling systems complex is being created as a part of a shared information structure of GIAS ES that integrates information flows from such governmental bodies as the Cabinet of Ministers, Hydrometcenter, MESCAU and others," says Oleksiy Ischuk, Project Manager and ULRMC GIS Specialist. "Thus, we are creating a common information environment, capable of providing a required input data level for modeling, as well as preparation of information to support decision-making system."

The system support for the complex is based on an ArcGIS system, a new generation software product from ESRI. At present, the information support of the complex is provided using the following MESCAU databases:

• Emergency situations database, containing information about the time, type and scale of each emergency situation;
• Hydro-meteorological database, constantly populated with real time information from Hydrometcenter of Ukraine;
• State Register of Potentially Unsafe Objects, and
• Stock of digital thematic maps of Ukraine.

In 2001, the first four complexes were implemented aiming to:

• Forecast and estimate flood consequences;
• Forecast and estimate mudflows;
• Forecast and estimate consequences of hazardous chemicals emission into the atmosphere;
• Assess possible consequences of karst processes spatially.

ULRMC specialists did the following work:

• Developed an algorithmic base of predictive modeling complexes;
• Implemented program for spatial modeling of flood areas;
• Updated water objects and road network geometry of Crimea and Zakarpattia Oblast using remote sensing technologies.

Project activities were continued in 2002 with the key objectives of extending the algorithmic base and updating input data for the developed complexes using remote sensing technologies. ULRMC was an official project co-implementer.

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