Applications of a GIS on Georisks for Nicaragua and Central America
Abstract
A GIS on Georisks in Nicaragua was developed in the last years at the Instituto Nicaraguense de Estudios Territoriales (INETER) in cooperation with Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR, Germany). This GIS includes extensive topographical coverage and a large part of the data obtained in Nicaragua in many recent projects on natural hazard, vulnerability and risk. It contains numerous data on elements under risk, for instance cadastre data of Nicaraguan cities. Activities include the integration of the GIS with the monitoring and early warning systems of INETER to update certain parts of the data base continuously and in real time. The GIS is used on a routine basis at INETER and the GIS data base provides an efficient starting point for multiple new projects on georisks in Nicaragua which after their termination deliver their products to the GIS to assure the continuous growth of the system. Local universities, governmental institutions, local administrations, NGO´s make use of the GIS data base. Examples of important datasets are the seismicity data of Nicaragua with around 30,000 events, landslide coverage with 17,000 events, seismic vulnerability of 212,000 buildings in Managua city, seismic microzonation data of several towns, and multidisciplinary hazard and vulnerability data for 30 municipalities in Western Nicaragua. An interdisciplinary group of Nicaraguan geoscientists, informatics engineers and GIS specialists at INETER was trained to develop and use the GIS in their daily work. Web mapping services were put onto INETER´s website to provide the general public in Nicaragua with direct access to the data. Based on the experience in Nicaragua a regional GIS on Georisks for Central America is under development in cooperation with other institutions in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
- Publication:
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AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2007
- Bibcode:
- 2007AGUSM.S33B..04S
- Keywords:
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- 0468 Natural hazards;
- 1819 Geographic Information Systems (GIS)