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Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Applications in Emergency Management

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Definition

Burroughs (1986) defined GIS as “a powerful set of tools for collecting, storing, retrieving, transforming, and displaying spatial data from the real world” (quoted in Waugh 2002, p. 277). In addition, Star and Estes (1990) stated GIS as “An information system that is designed to work with data referenced by spatial or geographic coordinates. In other words, a GIS is both a database system with specific capabilities for spatially referenced data, as well as a set of operations for working with the data” (p. 2).

Introduction

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a computer-based information system that can be utilized to acquire, store, display, and analyze spatial data; and it is widely used in the field of emergency management. Drabek (1991) defined emergency management as “the discipline and profession of applying science, technology, planning and management to deal with extreme events that can injure or kill large numbers of people, do extensive damage to property, and...

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Wei, HL. (2019). Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Applications in Emergency Management. In: Shapiro, L., Maras, MH. (eds) Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_13-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_13-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69891-5

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