The Application Of Mobile GIS In Emergency Disaster Notification Information Management System

Mobile computing is becoming more and more popular and common. Due to the advancement in technology people can now access the Internet from anywhere and anytime at will. This has been made possible due to the recent development in wireless facilities and mobile computers and some applications. However nothing much had been done to explore the use of mobile computing in its application to emergency disaster notification managementThe crucial element in this context is to make information available in time and accessible despite the location of the user. This will go a long way in helping to warn the people before a disaster occurs for them to take necessarily measures. During the disaster it helps in rescuing operation because rescues workers will know the exact location and the surroundings, which enables then to carry out the rescuing operations efficiently and smoothly.In this thesis we explore the use of Mobile GIS computing in attaining these objectives. We outline a methodological approach and architectures. This includes the use of wireless enabled web services; Internet GIS, the use of Java mobile simulator for remote access in the field, wireless enabled laptops. We illustrate detailed explanation on how these devices can be used to deliver data in short space of time. We design an application based on the thin client method, where we consider a single access to the database connection to different users. We design a client user interface taking into consideration different users, those who are and are not using small devices such as mobile phones to view and update the data .For mobile phones we based our study using a Java palm simulator.This application was tested using the weather data obtained from Zimbabwe meteorological center, and the analysis result of this data was stored in the database and linked to different cities. In this experiment we designed to warn the user about hazards such as fire, cyclone or earthquakes. In case any of these mentioned hazards occurs users can receive the information on their phones or they can view it on the websites within a short space of time. In case a disaster occurs the information will be highlighted and rescuers can use this information to carry out their operations. The extend of damages can be shown in the form of images and this will enable people to send aid request to any part of the world.An analysis of the experimental application of this system was carried out. It had been found out the transmission of data also depends on the service of the network and the technological advancement that implies the state of equipments such as broadband etc.The other issue noted was of limited memory of the small device, so in this case users can view a limited data at a time. It is hoped that in future as new technology is developed this problem will be solved.