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Simulation of natural disaster response on tangible geographic information systems

Brellas Ioannis

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Summary

Nowadays, Natural Hazards occur on a daily basis and typically require immediate human intervention, in order to prevent further disasters or casualties. In most cases, the scene conditions can be unpredictable or can change at extremely fast rates, due to factors that cannot be controlled or predicted. Cases like these consist ideal testbeds for modern, digital modeling and planning tools, as their use may enhance rescue teams' actions and efficiency. In this thesis, we present the use of a tangible Geographic Information System (GIS) as a support tool that can be used to assist search and rescue teams in preventing or stopping natural disasters. Specifically, a box filled with sand serves as a malleable terrain model that can be used to formulate any type of landscape. The physical form of the model is then digitized through a Kinect sensor and a combination of a 3D model and a GIS is implemented. On this 3D model of the tangible GIS we integrate a wildfire spread model and pathfinding algorithms, along with object detection techniques. The end result is a robust simulation of a real life firefighting scenario, where the 3D terrain model, the fire spread simulation and the minimum cost path are all projected on the sand's surface and the user can alter the parameters of the simulation in real time. The entire project has been implemented withing the Unity3D game engine and can be used as an executable application on all supported platforms. The main advantage of the proposed scheme is its real time aspect, as well as its adaptability to any kind of natural disaster and its ease of use, making it accessible to groups of no expertise on digital technologies.

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