Mapping the Risks of Natural Disasters
The National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) has embarked on several hazard mapping initiatives to help reduce the risks of any natural disaster.
Director for NDMO, Vasiti Soko, said NDMO was focused on developing hazard maps for planning purposes and to help with their response to natural disasters.
Ms Soko was speaking during the second day of the Pacific Geospatial Conference at the University of the South Pacific on Tuesday.
The conference was centred around discussions on how geographic information systems, digital platforms and remote sensing can be used to anticipate and manage impacts of global warming.
Ms Soko said one of the projects currently undertaken by the NDMO and the Japan International Cooperation Agency involved identifying areas of high frequency of earthquakes.
“Later, this initiative will provide guidance on building, and development on some of these areas that are prone to hazards,” she said.
TSUNAMI HAZARD
Fiji currently has 13 tsunami sirens installed in the Suva peninsula.
Ms Soko said they were working with the Japanese government and had secured funding to increase the
number of tsunami sirens.
“We will extend the tsunami sign from the last tsunami sign we have in Lami, all the way to Rakiraki,”
she said.
Ms Soko said tsunami hazard maps were another key information for the NDMO.
SATELLITE
Ms Soko said the NDMO was in the process of collaborating on research with the Japanese Government’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System.
This means that NDMO would get the assistance of using the satellite to issue early warning in case of a tsunami.
“We are going to test this first with a tsunami, and if this is successful, we will replicate this process down to all other hazards.”
TRADITIONAL SIGNS
Asked on how climate change affects disaster risk management, Ms Soko said they had seen the frequency in the increase in disaster, weather patterns and the change in traditional signs.
“Traditional signs of cyclones, or if there’s an imminent threat, are also evolving. Some of the things we were so used to before are not the same.
“For example, ivi (Tahitian chestnut) was sold at an odd time. For someone who loves eating ivi, they’d say, ‘oh ivi is available’. But for us, we say ok what’s really happening.
“So, this is some of the signs that are coming through to us, not only changing the work that we are doing but also allowing us to investigate further, how best we can comprehend the changes that are happening that it is changing the sphere of disaster management.”
ITEI QELE APPLICATION
Speaking during the conference was Khaled Mashfiq, the Regional Lead for United Nations Institute for Training and Research and the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNITAR-UNOSAT) in Asia-Pacific.
He said data needed to be simplified so that decision-makers were able to comprehend the information.
Mr Mashfiq said they were currently working with the Ministry of Agriculture in Fiji to develop the ‘itei qele’ app.
The application displays crop suitability in Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.
“Crop suitability is based on data from the Ministry of Agriculture, developed from soil surveys and classification,” he said.
“The application allows farmers to visualise where crops would be suitable to grow. Users can query by crop type or location and view a summary of soil mapping units, land use capability classes and the main soil limitations for an area of interest.
“Famers can use the application to assess the suitability of the land for selected crops the soil attributes and land qualities are compared with the individual crop requirements for optimum growth.”
WEB APP
Mr Mashfiq said they were also developing a simple and appealing web application that would help users see the impact of sea level rise on coastal communities.
“This interactive web app can measure the impact of different sea level rise scenarios on housing and relevant infrastructure. The elevation dataset was derived from FABDEM (Forest and Buildings removed Copernicus DEM) data,” he said.
“Decision-makers can use the app to visualise areas highly impacted by projected sea level rise by 2090, which assists with coastal adaptation planning.”
Although such an app was already available, he said this web app would provide visual appeal to the data, to the rising situation.
“So, when a community is playing with this data and sees that at 1-metre sea level rise, they would start losing half of their village. The next question that would be asked is what shall we do now? Should we start preparing now? So, in 50 years we will be ready, and we’ll be ready to take on the challenge.”
The conference ended on Wednesday, with GIS and remote sensing users, companies, scientists from across the Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries.