Call for Papers

Recent advancements in the field of geoinformation/geospatial technologies (GIT) which includes GIS, mobile mapping, volunteered geographic information (VGI), remote sensing and spatial analytics, in line with increased global awareness of the topic have resulted in a strong promotion of an integrated and applied perspective on GIScience in disaster risk research. Locational aspects have increasingly been considered essential in the aim of building disaster-resilient communities through coordinated international action by promoting increased situational risk awareness as an integral component of sustainable development.

Disasters and disaster management are an “inherently spatial” problem. Geographic information and related tools and technologies applied for data interpretation and information dissemination can provide insight and decision support in all aspects of integrated disaster risk and crisis management, as well as offer the basis for estimating and mapping risk, for determining damage potentials and impacted areas, for evacuation planning, for resource distribution during recovery, and for risk communication to involved stakeholders. Applications and challenges that GIScience and GIT are able to tackle in that regard include the representation, analysis, and cognition of geographic information, as well as associated spatio-temporal dynamics and uncertainties. Recent improvements in information and model interoperability as well as inter-accessibility through new data sharing, crowdsourcing, and integration initiatives add to this agenda. A special issue in a geospatial disaster risk and/or crisis management related journal is envisaged based on this track. A similar effort is currently being edited in the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, see info here http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijgi/special_issues/disaster-manag.