Geospatial Information Technology (GIT) for Operational Planning and Decision Making in Disaster Situations (Mozambique)
Mozambique is a disaster-prone country with a long history of man-induced or natural disasters. Cyclones pose the most significant and recurring risk to Mozambique, affecting 2 million people per year on average in the coastal region (GFDRR, 2019). Tropical Cyclones (TC) travel up the Mozambique Channel, particularly in the period of January to March each year (UNECA, 2015).
On the night of 14 to 15 March TC-IDAI made landfall in central Mozambique leaving more than 600 people dead and an estimated 1.85 million people in need in Mozambique alone. Drought and floods, exacerbated by the impact of the war, also have devastating impacts: at least 600,000 people are affected by drought every year while flooding poses a threat to lowland, highland, and urban areas with 200,000 people affected each year on average (GFDRR, 2019). In January 2020, heavy rain caused further damage and flooding in central parts of Mozambique just weeks after at least 28 people died and 58,000 were affected by floods.
Geospatial information technology (GIT) including satellite imagery analysis and data visualization plays a vital role in understanding the geographic extent and severity of disaster events. Nevertheless, the ability of national and regional authorities as well as disaster management experts to seamlessly collect, integrate, analyse geospatial information in a comprehensible and easy to use format for remains a challenge that needs to be addressed with ad-hoc training and capacity development programmes.
To meet these challenges, UNITAR-UNOSAT and UN Technology Bank are offering a 1-week introductory technical training course in the use of Geo-Spatial Information Technology to support operational planning and decision making for emergency response and post disaster recovery. This training will also include dedicated sessions on how to trigger satellite imagery acquisition mechanisms following major disaster events such as the International Charter Space and Major Disasters. The course is designed to accommodate selected participants from line ministries and national/regional disaster management authorities.
The overall aim of this GIS course is to provide training participants with concepts and terminology of Geo-spatial Information Technology (GIT) including ad-hoc geospatial methodologies based on selected real case scenarios from previous disaster events occurred in Mozambique (e.g TC-IDAI) to support emergency response and recovery planning operations.
• Define and describe basic concepts and terminology related to Geospatial Information Technology (GIT);
• Explain the role of geo-information in the response phase of a disaster and identify suitable mechanisms for satellite imagery acquisition.
• Identify, search, collect, organize and analyse geospatial related information relevant for disaster mapping;
• Apply basic methods and functionalities of GIS software to manage and analyse spatial data;
• Apply basic GIS methodologies to perform impact analysis and preliminary damage assessment in the aftermath of a disaster event;
• Recall basic functionalities of web platforms for Big Data Analysis such as Google Earth Engine and UNOSAT- AI based Flood Detection Tool;
• Undertake the process of map-making in support of emergency response and post-disaster recovery operations;
The course will develop basic GIS skills amongst selected participants so that they are able to collect, manage & analyse geospatial data using GIS software. Focus will be given to understand the concept of GIT (GIS&RS) and its main applications to support both emergency response and post disaster recovery planning following major disaster events.
A central part of the course will also cover mechanisms to collect pre and post disaster satellite images including procedures to trigger the International Charter Space and Major Disasters. During GIS lab exercises, training participants will learn geospatial methodologies to perform impact analysis and damage assessment using datasets from past disaster events occurred in Mozambique.
This is a full-time, face-to-face course with lectures and GIS lab exercises using GIS datasets and real case scenarios (60% lab exercises, 40% lectures and discussions). This course is divided into 5 modules. Each module is structured into 4 sessions of 1.5 hour each. The average workload per week is likely to be around 25-30 hours.
The course will be designed in a way to have a balanced approach between theoretical and practical teaching methods consisting in PowerPoint presentations, live demos, videos, interactive sessions and GIS lab exercises. A dedicated learning management platform will be set it up by UNOSAT to maximize the learning experience of participants and to provide all required technical backstopping during and after the training to complete the final group and individual GIS assignment.
By the end of the 1-week training course, training facilitators will assign to training participants a GIS mini-project to be completed within 2 weeks after the end of the GIS course. This individual or collective GIS mini-project will allow participants to practice acquired technical skills and to develop GIS applications relevant to their professional work. Participants will be encouraged to use for the assigned mini-project their own datasets) if available at their home institutions. UNOSAT experts will also provide training participants with required technical backstopping and assistance throughout the 2 weeks after the submission of the final assignment.
As soon as training participants will be selected, a training needs assessment (online survey) may be carried out by the UNOSAT team to better define training needs amongst selected participants. These results will help to tailor and develop training content material according to identified needs
1-day Awareness Raising Workshop targeting senior Governmental Officials and Decision Makers is also planned to be organized back to back with this technical training
Expected target audience for this course are selected participants from line ministries and national ICT organizations with preferably professional experiences in the following fields: Disaster Risk Management, Disaster Risk Reduction and Humanitarian Response. It could be advantageous for participants to have a basic knowledge of GIS software and applications.
Participants are highly recommended to attend a 4 hours online course “Getting Started with GIS” Offered by ESRI at: http://training.esri.com/gateway/index.cfm?fa=catalog.webCourseDetail&c… before this training.