JOINT INFORMATION PLATFORM FOR NATURAL HAZARDS IN SW ITZERLAND

Natural hazards cause severe economic loss and fatalities. Intervention measures of emergency management organizations and of affected people can help reduce these consequences. Key factors of effective and efficient intervention actions are comprehensive and timely information and warnings. Therefore, the Joint Information Platform for Natural Hazards, called GIN (German abbreviation for “Gemeinsame Informationsplattform Naturgefahren”) as part of the national project OWARNA (Optimisation of Warning and Alerting in the Event of Natural Hazards) has been developed since 2008. This web-browser-based platform provides natural hazard experts a quick and simple access to relevant real-time information in order to assess upcoming natural events and to support them in the decision making process during events. GIN visualises meteorological, hydrological and snow related observational data from more than 700 sources as well as forecasts and warnings. The platform displays data in the form of maps, diagrams as well as tables. A special view to display warnings, called cockpit, is implemented in version 2.0 that was deployed in December 2011. Good visualization, interactivity and simple navigation and usability are important elements of GIN. Predefined and user-defined views help to use GIN efficiently, also by users with low IT-experience. GIN meets the needs of natural hazard and emergency management specialists of federal authorities, cantons and municipalities and is accessed in the meantime by more than 1’000 users. In the conclusion and outlook, further work and integration of GIN into other national projects are sketched.