Global Disaster Information Network in the Works to Help Remote Crisis-Stricken Areas Around the World
Preliminary Findings to Be Presented at World Conference on Disaster Reduction, Kobe, Japan, January 18-22, 2005
Herndon, VA (5 JANUARY | 2005) - In the aftermath of the tsunamis that devastated Asia in late December 2004, observers pointed out that lack of official, credible information gave victims and governments in the area little prior warning of the impending disaster. Although still in the developmental stages, a partnership of the Global Disaster Information Network (GDIN) and the Organsation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is creating an information system that may significantly reduce the impact of future natural and manmade disasters. Native American Pueblo and Navajo Nations in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado are providing pilot sites for the GDIN system.
GDIN is a public-private partnership created by the US Department of State but now an international NGO involving technology industry and government experts and international civil servants from over a dozen countries and the United Nations. Once successfully completed, this Native American pilot project will be the model for replicating the network on an international level. Recommendations on design features come from federal agencies such as DOD, Interior, Agriculture and FEMA, as well as the United Nations, OECD, Natural Resources, Canada (NRCan) and private sector experts in the United States, Australia and elsewhere.
Begun in 1998, GDIN grew out of the realization that domestic and international communities needed to take better advantage of information to provide improved warning of potential crises, and reduce the risk and speed of response to disasters once they happen - especially in remote areas where communication infrastructure is poor.
"During a disaster, regardless of type of location, timely and accurate information is essential in order to limit damage or loss of life, and speed recovery," said Larry Roeder, Policy Advisor on Disaster Management for the Bureau of International Organizations at the State Department and Executive Director of GDIN. "Sharing information during a disaster is complicated by lack of sufficient communications infrastructure and the need for multi-national cooperation. GDIN is an attempt to create an interconnected network which will use national, international, government or private resources in real time, cost effectively."
Navajo and Pueblo Nations in three states were selected as pilot sites on advice from the Departments of Interior, Homeland Security and Agriculture. The locations were chosen because of geography and susceptibility to disasters similar to Southern Africa and other informationally-challenged areas of the world; and because of a real need to protect and preserve important tribal sites. Additionally, there has historically been limited real-time communication between these native peoples in the field of disaster preparedness information and little existing infrastructure to support such sharing - much like in the under-developed world or developed areas in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.
Sharing of disaster information among these people would create a model for the international community. The concept would be for the Native American network to be linked with other similar networks throughout the world, though local native peoples would control their own information for both security and culturally sensitive reasons. Local nodes are managed at the local level in order to maintain control of culturally sensitive information, as well as data that might have security implications.
The network as a whole is managed by GDIN as a global system that will facilitate moving critical data in the right format to nodes in need, as well as foster sharing of best practices that can be used as part of a general repository of accumulated knowledge to prevent or mitigate disasters.
"First and foremost it would be a communications vehicle," adds GDIN's Roeder. "It would open lines of communication among nations and groups of people that have little contact in the field, and allow them to help each other seamlessly. One could imagine indigenous people in New Mexico assisting similar groups in Alaska or Peru or Canada, and vice versa. This would make the network on the one hand a tool for tribal governments to directly service the needs of their own people, while on the other it would give them a means to augment traditional tools from local, state and federal governments. The system will strengthen these indigenous people as partners with governments, rather than creating competitors.
Technology industry experts and researchers from GDIN and OECD are currently working with Navajo and Pueblo representatives to develop a risk-assessment tool and a larger GDIN partnership will then use data from the tool and other sources to determine the information system and staffing requirements for a tribal intranet. That research will be completed and presented (without sensitive tribal data) to GDIN in the first quarter of 2005. The research also will be discussed at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) in Kobe, Japan January 18-22, 2005. Working jointly, GDIN and the Native American nations will seek funding from Congress and other sources to create and test the network.
"The Native American network, and those which will follow, are not intended to replace any existing systems in the United States or internationally," said David Baxa, President and CEO of VISTA Technology Services, Inc., an data infrastructure expert participating in GDIN. "We're talking about a number of independent, interconnected networks that could provide street maps of urban areas hit by an earthquake or satellite images of active volcano lava flows in a remote locale. In addition, though the project benefits from advice from OECD, the United Nations and experts from Canada and other nations, information is controlled at the local level."
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