Glancing at the GDACS web site this week, we obtained information of earthquakes, floods and tropical cyclones – of which there normally is plenty of. But who is GDACS?
The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System is a cooperation framework under the United Nations umbrella also known as OCHA or the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Their task is to gather information from various disaster managers from around the globe into one focal point immediately after major disasters. This provides real time web based disaster information and related coordination tools.
GDACS is managed by a Steering Committee currently chaired by Mr. Peter Billing of the European Commission Monitoring and Information Centre. The Emergency Relief Coordination Centre (ERCC) in the OCHA in Geneva acts as GDACS Secretariat.
The service they render is to provide alerts and impact estimations after major disasters at www.gdacs.org through a service managed by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC).
Floods disasters are monitored by the Dartmouth Flood Observatory. Relevant data is integrated automatically into GDACS alerts and impact estimations.
GDACS develops standards and guidelines for international information exchange in disasters as well as a real-time coordination platform at http://vosocc.unocha.org to disaster managers worldwide.
The provision of maps, satellite images and other information is compiled and coordinated and integrated into any disaster situation. Weather forecasts are provided on demand and integrated into disaster situations.
Many Governments and disaster response organisations around the world rely on GDACS alerts and automatic impact estimations to plan international assistance. Some 14000 disaster managers from governmental and non-governmental organisations subscribe to VirtualOSOCC for rapid information on disasters.
The importance of GDACS cannot be underestimated. During the days after impact of any disaster they can provide much needed and accurate information to assist relief organisations in their relief efforts.
Information fed to GDACS also assists in preventing duplication of efforts as everything is controlled from one focal point. A well planned and efficient organisation one can rely on for accurate and rapid information after any major disaster anywhere on our planet. Extremely useful from an amateur radio perspective when learning of disasters to allow activation of emergency networks!
Reporting for Hamnet, this is Francois Botha – ZS6BUU.
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