Mapping of natural hazards and its applications in Korea

Modem disaster patterns are becoming increasingly complicated, thus disaster prevention action needs to be multi-hazard, multi-scale, multi-faced, and multi-disciplinary. The development of geographical information system (GIS) technology may help in the building of a related database for all phases of a disaster event, aided by thematic maps and spatial patterns of factors related to natural hazards. Geological maps form the basis for disaster management and GIS is a powerful tool. However, such a database has been initiated in diverse governmental bodies, and created by various departments for their own purposes. The government should appoint a single institution with universal standards to perform GIS research on natural hazards. Currently, National Institute for Disaster Prevention (NIDP) initiated natural hazard studies use GIS and remotely sensed images. The information extractable from GIS and images can help to improve understanding of topographic features and to extract natural disaster factors from various thematic maps.