Natural disaster management: activities in support of the UN system

The ready availability and cost-effective management of dependable geo-spatial information is central to raising the operational efficiency of emergency management activities, especially of events hitting developing countries, more vulnerable to calamities and less prepared to face them. This chapter aims to show how an approach based on geomatics techniques may improve the effectiveness of early impact analysis of natural disasters. Since the United Nations system is deeply involved in international emergency response, the first part of the chapter will discuss the main UN activities related to geographic data management. Afterwards, some applications dealing with the use of geomatics techniques in support of early impact activities will be described, making use of, among other examples, the joint project between ITHACA (a non-profit organization formed by university and research centres) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP), formally supported by ISPRS