Web-based GIS system improves disaster management through early damage estimation in urban areas, indicating potential for faster response post-earthquake.
Early damage estimation in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophic earthquake is critical for effective disaster response and informed decision-making, especially in densely populated urban areas with high seismic activity, such as the Lima Metropolitan Area, Peru. This research focuses on designing and developing a web-based geographic information system for early earthquake damage estimation, featuring a four-stage workflow. Stage 0 generates pre-event damage estimations using earthquake scenarios, infrastructure datasets, and vulnerability models. Stage 1, initiated immediately after an earthquake, selects the closest pre-calculated scenario by comparing the peak ground acceleration values recorded by accelerometers with pre-estimated intensity measures. Stage 2 creates ShakeMaps by interpolating observed ground motion indices to produce the updated damage estimates based on real-time intensity distributions. A future Stage 3 will refine these estimates using post-event observed data. Data acquisition relies on open geospatial services and Peruvian governmental platforms, integrating datasets related to general buildings, essential buildings (schools and hospitals), transportation networks (bridges and roads), and lifeline systems (water supply and sewage). The system was implemented using open-source geospatial tools, providing a cost-effective, scalable solution for early-time disaster management in earthquake regions.
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Diaz et al. (2025) studied this question.