Emergency Mapping Team Supplies Resources for Japan Disaster

Emergency Mapping Team Supplies Resources for Japan Disaster

Multiple Organizations Come Together to Provide Relief and Recovery Support

Redlands, California—April 12, 2011—More than a dozen organizations have come together to provide mapping support for the Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster. The group, known as the Emergency Mapping Team (EMT), is supplying maps and web services that are being used to make better decisions for relief and recovery efforts related to the recent Tōhoku, Japan, earthquake and resultant tsunami. EMT-produced maps are enhanced with information generated by disaster management experts that helps supply updated status reports on the overall situation.

“The use of geographic information system (GIS) technology has contributed to overall situational awareness,” says Russ Johnson, public safety director, Esri. “In addition, thousands of maps that utilize the analytical power of GIS have been produced to support critical decision making. EMT’s maps and services supply valuable information, from evacuation zones to rolling blackout locations to seismic activity.”

EMT maps and services give people information on shelters, highway and traffic conditions, infrastructure, and more. For example, EMT-produced resources have been used by the Japanese government to understand conditions on the ground, develop a list of recovery and relief priorities, and deploy personnel and equipment. These resources are available online as both static maps and dynamic map services available for mashup capability. As new maps and services are created, they are made available online at the EMT website.

Several organizations are involved with EMT: Esri, ESRI Japan Corporation, Honda Motor, Pioneer, and more.

About Esri

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.