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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
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
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 251
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-
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 252
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.
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 253
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 254
Figure 4: Images showing the proposed work plan in the study area
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 255
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.