Focus maps: a means of prioritizing data collection for efficient geo-risk assessment
Main Article Content
Abstract
Efficient Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) management constantly calls upon high-quality information to be collected or updated for vulnerability monitoring and risk assessment. This process is often resource- and time-intensive, which many economically developing states (including most Central Asian countries) can seldom afford. In this paper, we introduce the concept of focus maps as a useful tool to quantify the spatial probability of sampling. Focus maps allow for a data collection prioritization scheme to be put in place, enabling the realization of optimized spatial sampling which assigns a higher priority to locations where the need for high-quality information is greater. In practice, smaller samples can be drawn with the same (or better) resulting accuracy of the estimates, resulting in a more efficient use of time and resources. The factors that affect such a spatial sampling scheme include the usual components of risk assessment (hazard, exposure, vulnerability) where available, as well as other potentially critical factors, such as the extent and quality of previously collected data. The practical application of the proposed approach to the case of Central Asia will be exemplified and discussed.
Article Details
Open-Access License
No Permission Required
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia applies the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL) to all works we publish.
Under the CCAL, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article, but authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, so long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.