30.GIS-based Software Applications for Environmental Risk Management

8/9/2019 30.GIS-based Software Applications for Environmental Risk Management

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GIS-based Software Applications for Environmental RiskManagement

Naresh RahejaRMSI Private Limited, A - 7 Sector 16, Noida 201 301, IndiaTel: !1 120 2"1 1102, 2"1 2101, #a$: !1 120 2"1 110!, 2"1 0!63, %mail: nare&'(ra'e)a*rm&i(com

AbstractOver the past few decades, there has been an increasing concern that human actions and naturalcatastrophes have been adversely impacting the environment, and posing serious ecological andhealth hazards. This concern has led to an increased emphasis on environmental riskassessment studies all over the world.

Environmental risk assessment aims at studying the nature of environmental hazards, (emissionof a pollutant/contaminant, natural hazard events, use of a hazardous technology, or any possiblecombination of these, and estimating the associated probability of occurrence of such events.The study also aims at characterizing the adverse effects of environmental hazards resulting fromhuman and ecological e!posures.

Environmental risk management seeks to minimize the impact of natural catastrophes, based ona detailed analysis of the risk assessment results. This helps in effective planning of the remedialsteps, prioritizing of the action items, and early decision"making. This also helps in the #uickenforcement of suitable policy or regulatory mechanisms. Today, environmental risk managementis practiced by a wide range of industry segments, such as general and life insurance, real estateand construction, government and development funding organizations, agriculture, and utilitiessectors.

$n the past, %$& based software applications have been used widely for environmental riskassessment and analysis studies. The usage of %$& in environmental risk management rangesfrom development of databases/inventory systems, and simple to advanced %$& layers overlay, tocomple! spatial decision"making systems for study of the impact of air, water and soil pollution,ecological imbalance, and natural disasters on the environmental and human receptors.

Environmental risk management also uses inputs and e!pertise from many other disciplines.'hemistry, physics, biology, ecology, geology, hydrology, engineering and statistics being some of them. Typically, a large number of comple! variables are involved in the risk assessment andanalysis process.

The environmental risk management process involves usage of information derived andpresented in various ways. or e!ample, comparative (or relative risk analysis, cost"benefitanalysis, scenario analysis, probabilistic analysis, decision matri!, sensitivity analysis etc. )ue tothe need for displaying and analyzing a huge volume of the spatial as well as non"spatialenvironmental hazards, and e!posure data, in a fast and accurate manner, %$& based softwareapplications serve as powerful tools for effective environmental risk assessment andmanagement.

This paper discusses an approach for the use of %$&"based software application framework forenvironmental risk management. The paper shall also present three case studies on the use ofthis approach for resolving some specific environmental risk management problems.

IntroductionEnvironmental risk assessment aims at identifying all possible types of environmental hazards towhich a particular geographic region or specific communities are e!posed, and assessing the riskin terms of historical as well as probable ecological, human, property and other losses associatedwith these hazards. *sing the results of the risk assessment as an input, environmental risk

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management involves e!amining, implementing + evaluating the options available for effectivelymanagement of these risks.

Options available include prevention, reduction or mitigation of these risks, and planning forpreparedness, response and recovery for the probable or real"time environmental disasters. Themain obective of environmental risk management is to minimize the possible damage to variousenvironmental components, and to ensure a long"term sustainability of the overall environment.

- reasonably accurate assessment of the magnitude and e!tent of the possible risks is animportant step in the overall environmental risk management cycle. $t includes #uantification of the spatial as well as non"spatial characteristics of the environmental hazards affecting aparticular region (for e!ample" emission of a pollutant/contaminant, a natural hazard event, use of a hazardous technology, or any possible combination of these0 and 1 estimating the associatedprobability of occurrence of such events, followed by characterization of e!pected adverse effectsresulting from human and ecological e!posures to these environmental hazards. This analysishelps in effective planning of the action items, in prioritizing and decision"making, and in enforcingsuitable policy or regulatory mechanisms.

Environmental risk management, in its various forms, is practiced by a wide range of industrysegments 2 including general and life insurance industry, real state and construction industry,

government and development funding organizations, agriculture and the utilities sectors.

Role of GIS software applications for ERMEnvironmental risk management needs a multi"disciplinary approach, with input and e!pertisere#uired from many fields " civil and chemical engineering, physics, life sciences, ecology,geology, hydrology and statistics being some of them. - wide range of simple to comple!, spatialas well as non"spatial, and #uantitative as well as #ualitative, input data sets are used inenvironmental risk assessment and analysis process. The environmental risk managementprocess involves preparation and use of the processed information derived and presented invarious ways 2 for e!ample, comparative (or relative risk analysis, cost"benefit analysis, scenarioanalysis, probabilistic analysis, decision matri!, sensitivity analysis etc. )ue the need for usingand analyzing a huge volume of the spatial as well as non"spatial environmental hazards ande!posure data in a fast and reasonably accurate way, %$& based software applications using a

variety of modeling techni#ues serve as powerful tools for effective environmental riskassessment and management.

&uch applications can be used for a diverse environmental risk assessment and analysispurposes. These applications can ranges from development of databases/inventory systems forsimple to comple! %$& layers overlays, to comple! spatial decision"making systems for study ofthe impact of air, water and soil pollution, ecological imbalance, and natural disasters on thenatural and man"made environment, including living beings, properties, infrastructure, vegetationand ecology. These systems could also be interlinked with other related systems, providing onlineand real"time input data feeds or communication systems, to allow continuous monitoring andtracking of environmental risks in an integrated way. 3ormally, it is good to start with a prototypeapplication first, which could be e!panded further based on the budgetary allocation, user needsand the user feedback obtained from the prototype4s implementation.

- general %$&"based software application framework used for environmental risk management

igure illustrates suggested web"based n"tier architecture for a components"basedenvironmental risk management application. $t is good to use a components"based architectureapproach, because it allows a parallel development of the components. The components canthen be reused for similar other applications as well. The main elements of the architecture area user interface (or the browser0 b the web server, which interfaces between the browser andthe application/data servers, and c application servers (and the associated data servers, asneeded, which handle the spatial and non"spatial data #uery transactions and analysis


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algorithms.

The transitioning from an environmental risk assessment application to an E56 application ispossible through adding an E56 guidelines/rules engine, which provides recommendations foraction items/policy formulation based on a comparison of the results from the risk assessmentengine with the system defined threshold values. The associated rules and recommendations, for the cases when the computed values go beyond the defined threshold values, are built into thesystem. &uch a system would fall into the category of a 7knowledge based system8, which canprovide spatial and non"spatial data display, analysis, and results interpretation functionality.

Figure 1 Figure 1: A typical architecture for a components-based environmental risk managementapplication

Three e!amples of the %$& software E56 applications, which use this basic system framework,besides having other specific functionality for the intended purposes, would be discussed as apart of this paper. These include

. -n environmental sustainability threat scenario modeling application for governmentpolicy formulation

1. - multiple"source industrial pollution/contamination modeling application for portfolio riskmanagement by the real estate and insurance sector

9. - catastrophic modeling application for the emergency preparedness and responseplanning by a city administrator

-n environmental sustainability threat scenario modeling application for government policyformulation

:uilding of a highway into a fragile hilly environment, e!cessive draining out of ground water,deforestation for housing infrastructure development 2 these are ust some of the human actionsaimed at meeting the short"terms needs. 'aused by the changes in demographics and socio"economic profiles of a region, these may create long"term environmental degradation. *sing aknowledge"based %$& software application, a set of scenarios can be simulated to visualize thelong"term implications of planned human actions, based on which alternate actions can beplanned 2 for e!ample, a change in alignment of a highway to shift it away from a fragileecosystem or envisaging water harvesting option for a region.


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&uch a system would allow the users to develop possible scenarios using %$& and graphicalicons (as indicated in figure 1. or e!ample, a symbol of a polluting industry planned can beplaced at a user defined locations on a given regional map, showing the terrain, rivers, soil,vegetation, population, employment, infrastructure, land"use and wild life attributes, and toevaluate the different aspects of the environmental risk, for a set of industry locations scenarios.

$t can help in developing a prior understanding of the potential risks and for arriving at the bestpossible alternatives, within the given constraints. There actions could be a combination ofhuman actions taking place in that region0 for e!ample, establishment of an industry zone,growing of cash crops, clearing of some forest area to build the industry + houses. These entiresituation involves a comple! set of multiple actions over a wide geographic region, so there woulda need for the system to be able to analyze + manage the environmental risks posed by thecombination of these actions.

Figure 2: chematic diagram sho!ing a sample catchments area under consideration and some of the"variables# to be used for scenario analysis$ indicated through graphical icons

;hile the potential hazards are very clearly defined in this case, there is a need to develop thefollowing 7analysis engines8 in the E56 system to work out a long"term environmental impactscenario (a simplified approach has been suggested for analysis of each factor

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region, e!tent of deforestation, and the shift to growing of cash crops which may affectthe land fertility. -gain, the overall impact of the pollution is linked to the tourism potentialof the area, and to the health conditions of the local inhabitants. There would be ane!pected change in all these aspects over time, and the long"term demographic,economic and ecological scenario could be #uite different from the short"term ones.

&uch a scenario simulation and analysis application could help in having a visual presentation ofthe possible situations, and planning suitable actions and alternatives, both in term of the specificlocations (spatial and the time factor (temporal associated with such actions. This is possiblethrough developing a %$& software application, with the data and analysis engine components, asindicated above, and the use of e!perts4 opinion on developing a set of meaningful scenarios. Theresults obtained from this type of system can be used for preparing effective policyrecommendations and guidelines for maintaining the long"term environmental sustainability of aspecific region, while keeping the regional growth and development needs in mind.

- multiple"source industrial pollution/contamination modeling application for portfolio riskmanagement by the real estate and insurance sector

Environmental risk insurance is increasing being used in real estate development proects. $tallows the potential real estate sellers or buyers to eliminate or reduce the uncertainty associatedwith the possible contamination or damage to the property, covered under such custom"madeinsurance policies. The users of such insurance cover could be real estate developers,contractors, buyers or financial institutions providing real estate loans. These customizedinsurance packages could help in covering the e!penses for the cleaning/reconstruction of theaffected sites, and can help in mitigating the risks associated with the proect management of thereal estate development proects.


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Figure %: A sample ha&ard map sho!ing the impact of a contamination scenario in a region due to therelease of ha&ardous material from a certain height

*se of %$& software application for this kind of application provides many benefits @isualdisplay of the hazard, risk, and e!pected damage values0 1 *se of spatial modeling techni#uesto carry out the analysis using the %$& data layers as input0 9 aster and efficient handling ofhuge and comple! dataset.

)epending upon the nature of environmental risk insurance policy, some other comple!ities manyalso be integrated in the system. or e!ample, it may be important to assess the health risks, bymeasuring the chances that the people living in certain properties would e!perience healthproblems. E!posure to to!ic air pollutants can cause serious health risks, and if this were covered

in the insurance policy, the E56 system would need to include the data, analysis and outputengines related to the health risk factors too.

- catastrophic modeling application for the emergency preparedness and response planning by acity administrator

The natural catastrophes, for e!ample, earth#uakes, cyclones, landslides, floods, forest fires, canpotentially cause environmental changes in a significant and sudden manner.


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Figure ': A typical disaster management cycle

%$& software applications are e!tensively used for emergency preparedness and responseplanning by city administrators in such cases. $n a typical disaster management cycle (asindicated in figure =, disaster prevention, disaster mitigation, and disaster preparednessconstitute the pre"disaster planning phase, and response, recovery and mitigation as the post"disaster planning phase. Are"disaster steps are more useful since they help in preparing for thedisasters in advance, however, proper post"disaster planning is e#ually important to cope up withthe immediate impact of a disaster, as and when it occurs.

$t involves responding to disasters by the city administrators and various organizations, providingmany services that need to be mobilized at a momentBs notice and functioning for anindeterminate period in a coordinated manner under stressful and difficult circumstances. Thesemay be demobilized after the emergency is over. The ability of a city administrator to manage theemergencies in a proactive manner, rather than ust react to the crises, is critically dependent onthe availability and flow of real time and archived information from monitoring systems, thematic

databases, and decision support systems that are linked to each other.

*se of %$& would be a necessity in these cases, in view of the spatial nature of the input as wellas output data, and the software"based analysis engines would provide the abilities for fast andaccurate analysis of the possible scenarios.


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*se of component based architecture allows modeling of a comple! system with multiple andscalable components.

30.GIS-based Software Applications for Environmental Risk Management

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