Spatial Decision Support in a Post-disaster Environment: A Community-Focused Approach

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Disasters, by definition, are low-frequency, high-impact events. Because of the infrequent occurrence and dynamic conditions of such events, researchers do not often have the ability to thoroughly study their effects. However, as population distributions and densities place more people at risk of experiencing a disaster, more complete investigations of these events are needed. Recovery, the post-disaster phase of returning to “normalcy,” is one understudied aspect. Gaining a better understanding of this process has important implications for the well-being of disaster-affected people and equitable redevelopment of affected places. This article focuses on one aspect of recovery: spatial decision support for communities. Though the literature on community mapping discusses a variety of cases in which geographic information systems (GIS) are used as a tool to engage the public on a variety of issues, it has yet to address concerns in a post-disaster environment. Furthermore, existing research in geographic information science (GISc) for disasters has only limited dealings with community-focused mapping. The result is that community information needs in a post-disaster environment have not been recognized. Based on existing literature and empirical observations from post-Katrina Louisiana, this article addresses the spatial component of these information needs and how GISc can provide decision-support tools in a post-disaster environment.