The RiskBox project aims to develop a risk management system using geospatial technologies. It involves creating GIS tools and models integrated in GRASS GIS to assess natural hazards. These tools will be made available via web processing services. A web interface called ProtectMe will allow users to access risk analyses and visualize hazard areas and mitigation infrastructure. The project also includes education programs to teach risk management skills using open source GIS tools. Overall, RiskBox seeks to improve natural disaster risk assessment and mitigation planning through open sharing of geomatic and risk analysis methods.

1. Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk
The project RiskBox
Monia Elisa Molinari1 , Roberto Marzocchi2 , Massimiliano
Cannata1
1
IST-SUPSI, Institute of Earth Sciences, Canobbio (Switzerland)
s.r.l. Gter Innovation in Geomatics, Gnss and Gis, Genova (Italy)
2 Gter
Genoa, 30 October 2013

2. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
Summary
1
Introduction
Natural Hazards and Risks
GIS and risk assessment
Key components of a risk management system
2
The RiskBox project
Objectives
The project
GIS tools
Web Processing Service
ProtecMe
Education
3
Conclusions and perspectives
Contacts
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

3. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
Disasters
Natural disasters are impacting upon mankind with relentless
frequency and intensity and have taken a heavy toll in recent years.
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

4. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
Mitigation
Risk assessment analysis allows the development of natural hazard
mitigation planning.
Hazard Mitigation
planning is the process of
developing a set of actions
designed to reduce or
eliminate long-term risk to
people and property from
hazards and their effects.
Those plans if actuated allow to reduce: economic losses, killing
and injuring, historical and architectural heritage damages.
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

5. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
Risk analysis and GIS
R =H ∗V ∗E
Hazard : Where, how often
and with what intensity do
events occur?
Vulnerability : What is the
extent of damage at a given
event intensity?
Exposure : Where the
elements at risk are located
and what is their value?
Most of the questions have strong geospatial component.
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

6. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
Risk analysis and Geoinformation domains
DATA: updated
information
collection, storing and
serving
ANALYSIS: hazards
modelling and risk
assessment
OPERATIONAL:
information access
and decisions
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

7. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
Key components for Data domain
Objective
Interoperability for data integration and serving
Method
Application of OGC Standard Services
(WMS,WCS,WFS,SOS, etc)
Motivations
They are widely used and many tools implement them.
Geospatial data models accessibility
to support risk management
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

8. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
Key components for Analysis domain
Objective
Models integration and
serving
Method
Development of GIS
modules and serving
trough WPS
GIS embedded tool, procedures and numerical
models
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

9. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
Key components for Operational domain
Objective
Distribute information to operational agencies
Method
Development user friendly Web interfaces for data visualization
and analysis (OpenLayers, GeoExt, LefletJS, etc.)
Motivations
Web is worldwide available and offer the necessary real-time
communication
GUI developed in web environment to provide user friendly
access to the GIS modules and geographical data
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

10. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
RiskBox
Geoinformation Technology for Natural Disaster
Management and Sustainable Development.
Developing a Risk Management
System
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

11. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
RiskBox
RiskBox is a project which includes:
1
tool, open source procedures and numerical models fully GIS
integrated in the GRASS GIS open source software;
2
graphical user interface (GUI) developed in desktop / Web
environment to provide user friendly access to the GIS
modules and geographical data;
3
geospatial data models, to store and share information on
hazard areas and protection works;
education to enrich knowledge and personal skills in risk
management, and risk resilience.
4
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

12. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
GRASS-GIS
GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) is
a a high-quality free open source geospatial software that
supports raster and vector data in two and three dimensions.
The integration of new functions and model can be easily
conducted using its highly advanced geographic libraries, as
shown by the following models alreay implemented in
GRASS.
rock falls (r.rockcone)
flooding (r.inund.fluv, r.damflood r.hazard.flood, etc.)
landslide / debris-flow (r.dfwalk, r.debrisflow, r.massmov,
r.lhm)
avalanches (r.avalanche)
tsunami (r.tsunami,r.impact.tsunami)
fire (r.ros/r.spread/r.spreadpath)
etc.
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

13. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
r.rockcone
r.rockcone implement a quick and low-cost
determination of areas endangered by
rockfalls following an heuristic approach: a
block starting from a source will travel
down the slope and stop at the intersection
point of the topography with a so called
energy line drawn from the source point
and making an angle ϕ with horizontal.
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

14. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
r.inund.fluv
We developed
r.inund.fluv, a new GIS
command that allows to
use the result of a 1D
hydrodinamic model
(HEC-RAS, Basement,
MIKE11, etc) to evaluate
2D flood maps.
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

15. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
r.damflood
r.damflood is rather a 2D GIS embedded numerical model which
evaluate flooding map in case of dam break.
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

16. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
r.dfwalk
r.dfwalk is command which implement
dfwalk, a conceptual model for the
calculation of the area involved by debris
flow, modified to be used as a tool for risk
assessment at the municipality level.
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

17. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
r.massmov
r.massmov is an open-source model for
simulating fast landslide phenomena
over complex topographies.
It has been developed to meet the
expectation of innovative early warning
systems modeling services.
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

18. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
r.lhm
r.lhm is a command to obtain landslide susceptibility maps
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

19. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
r.tsunami
r.tsunami is a hydraulic model for
inundation estimation
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

20. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
r.impact.tsunami
r.impact.tsunami is landslide-generated
tsunami model capable of simulating:
wave generation due to impact
wave propagation towards the basin
wave runup and flooding
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

21. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
Web Processing Service
The Web Processing Service (WPS) is the standard used to
analyse spatial data from the web. GIS model and tools can be
served on the web by using this standard. Real-time analysis can
be performed changing the input data.
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

22. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
Web Processing Service
Two are the main advantages of the web processing services:
Interoperability: software applications written in various
programming languages and running on various platforms can
use web services to exchange data over Internet.
Usability: web services easily allow software and services from
different companies and locations to be combined easily to
provide an integrated service.
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

23. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
ProtectMe
With the purpose to improve the management of
risk reduction initiatives, the Swiss Federal Office
for the Environment (FOEN) launched the
ProtectMe project, an initiative of the Swiss
Confederation to standardize and capture data
related to natural hazard control/mitigation
infrastructure.
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

24. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
ProtectMe
ProtectMe is a complete system for the catalogue, management
and visualization of protection work.
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

25. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
Education
University of Applied Science of
Southern Switzerland and Gter ,
a spin-off company of the
University of Genoa (Italy), are
also cooperating with their tasks
in organize professional course
about risk management.
Two examples are:
RiskLab bachelor course (SUPSI);
continuity education program of SUPSI and Gter, which are
specifically performed on Open Source geospatial tools.
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Geomatics for management and mitigation of risk

26. Introduction
The RiskBox project
Conclusions and perspectives
Conclusions and perspectives
RiskBox is a
project
developed
from common
research
interests
between
IST-SUPSI
and Gter, next
steps are:
RiskBox web-site development;
tool for end users (institutions, citizens, etc);
looking for new research funding opportunities;
etc.
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27. Thanks for the attention
Campus Trevano
CH-6952 Canobbio
monia.molinari@supsi.ch
Via Greto di Cornigliano 6r
16152 Genova
roberto.marzocchi@gter.it
massimiliano.cannata@supsi.ch
Geomatic division
www.gter.it
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