WebGIS for Disaster Management and Emergency Response

This book aims to help students, researchers and policy makers understand the latest research and development trends in the application of WebGIS for Disaster Management and Emergency Response. It is designed as a useful tool to better assess the mechanisms for planning, response and mitigation of the impact of disaster scenarios at the local, regional or national levels. It contains details on how to use WebGIS to solve real-world problems associated with Disaster Management Scenarios for the long-term sustainability. The book broadens the reader understanding of the policy and decision-making issues related to Disaster Management response and planning.

Dr. Rifaat Abdalla is Associate Professor of Geospatial Science with King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). During the past ten years, he served as Defence Scientist with Defence Research and Development Canada; the Federal Government of Canada research arm in Defense and Security research. In addition he was Adjunct Professor with the graduate program in Disaster and Emergency Management, York University, Toronto, he also served as a contract faculty with the Geomatics Program, Ryerson University, Toronto (Canada). Dr. Abdalla received his Ph.D. from the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science, York University in 2006, specialized in Web-based GIS Applications. He received his Masters in Environmental Systems Engineering, from the University of Regina, focusing on GIS and Remote Sensing Applications. Dr. Abdalla has published extensively in the ?eld of Web-based GIS for Disaster Management and has received many recognitions and awards, including the 2007 ESRI Best Scienti?c Paper, presented by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) for papers published in Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing Journal. Also, he is a recipient of the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Ph.D. Scholarship and Post-doctoral Fellowship, Ontario Graduate Scholarship for Science and Technology Scholarship and the Best Paper Award of 2009 Conference on Geo-Web Services, held in Cancun, Mexico.