The Asia Pacific Natural Hazards and Vulnerabilities Atlas

Recognizing that natural disasters are predominantly local issues, often with national, regional, or global impacts, the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) has developed the Asia Pacific Natural Hazards and Vulnerabilities Atlas. This Hazards Atlas is an interactive, geospatial mapping tool and database for natural hazards and vulnerabilities information within the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. A principal objective of the Hazards Atlas is to provide decision makers with greater awareness of the risks of natural hazards in their area of concern and a venue for exploring regional- and national-level issues related to risk and vulnerability as well as for assessing impacts of natural hazard events.

The atlas utilizes geographic information system technologies to integrate and display locations, magnitudes, and dates of hazard events; delineate regional natural hazard phenomena; and depict historical trends. It also gives users access to baseline geographic and infrastructure data layers as well as historical and near real-time data on natural hazard events including earthquakes, wildfires, tsunamis, volcanoes, and tropical storms. The Asia Pacific Natural Hazards and Vulnerabilities Atlas combines data compiled from various sources including Esri, NOAA, USGS, NGA, National Weather Service, Naval Pacific Meteorology and Oceanography Center’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and University of Hawaii. The online atlas is available at http://atlas.pdc.org.

Courtesy of Pacific Disaster Center.