Risk management became a hot topic after the tsunami in December 2004. At the meeting of the Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies (JBGIS)in April 2005 it emerged that participant societies all nurtured the ambition of being active in the field of risk/disaster management and early warning. To avoid competing activities, an ad hoc group was established with an initial task of collecting information about already existent projects and afterwards to come up with recommendations.

Disaster management had traditionally been seen as protection from hazard, the main focus being on technical protection against natural dangers, such as building dikes against flood. The concept of risk management arose in response to the realisation that complete protection against hazards is rather impossible. There is no doubting the importance of geospatial information science and technology in risk and disaster management, including early warning. In order to sort out the activities, we have first to distinguish between the three phases ‘before’, ‘during’ and ‘after’. Our sciences and technologies are involved in all three, but as organisations we have to focus on ‘before’ and ‘after’. This can be done in many ways, but the most important is to use and develop our networks of scientists and professionals dealing with risk and disaster management at levels from local to global.

At local level there is now a trend towards establishing Risk Departments and recruiting risk engineers to deal with fire, flood, industrial outlets and transportation of dangerous materials. The Risk Department of the county administration authorities operates at inter-municipal level and it is quite common for a risk management group at county level to organise exercises based on a risk scenario. The need for geospatial information compatible over the wholeSClBarea and that can be updated in real time has represented a bottleneck in these exercises. There is a preparedness to set up emergency centres in the case of major crises such as forest fire, epidemics like anthrax and bird flu, flooding and other natural disasters, and for severe traffic accidents. At national level, almost all nations have a government agency for disaster management. The US FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) is a good example (www.fema.gov). At global level the United Nations (UN) is the major player; with the UN Platform for Space-born Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (SPIDER, www.unoosa.org) as main entrance.

What is the task ahead for the diverse geospatial information societies? They should co-ordinate efforts in a variety of fields. In science an international research agenda on Geospatial Information in Risk and Disaster Management is needed, and they should provide a forum for exchange and dissemination of research. With respect to education they should develop university curricula on the same theme, produce teaching material and train trainers. In the field of professional practice they should provide on-the-job training for risk and disaster management officers, and support the organisation and implementation of geospatial information and technology at crisis-management centres. And at the level of society as a whole they should improve political awareness of the role of geospatial information and technology in risk and disaster management, and provide risk maps. Last but not least, they should estimate the savings in life and reconstruction that might result from the use of geographic information and technology before, during and after disasters.

And there is more on the agenda. Each organisation should organise sessions on risk-management topics during their main conferences. We should recognise the symposium entitled Geospatial Information for Disaster Management (GI4DM) as the main international event and provide expert delegates to UN conferences and other UN activities. Furthermore, each society might nominate a contact person and assign a commission or working group to risk management. These points have been discussed in the ad hoc group and will be reported to the next JBGIS meeting, to take place in Moscow in August this year. For more information check the following publications:
• The Contribution of the Surveying Profession to Disaster Risk Management. FIG Publication no. 38, Fredriksberg, Denmark, 2006.
• Spatial Solutions for the Benefit of our Society in a Rapidly Changing World. ISPRS, Istanbul, Turkey, 2006.