Google Maps of the Australian Floods

The tragedy of the flooding in Australia seems to just keep getting worse and worse. Flash floods in the Brisbane area have left nine dead and at least 70 missing nearby.


All Things Spatial map of the Australian floods

Arek, of Australian mapping blog All Things Spatial, has written a great post about how the government is often slow to respond to such crisis with GIS projects.

Because governments are often slow to respond community lead projects in the GIS arena are a great solution. For example, ABC has just released the ABC Qld Flood Crisis Map, built on the Ushahidi platform.


ABC Qld Flood Crisis Map

The map is an attempt to crowdsource reports on the Queensland floods and the recovery operations. The Ushahidi platform is especially useful as it can be configured to send SMS alerts to registered users.

Arek also points to the Australian Early Warning Network that republishes Bureau of Meteorology information and sends emergency alerts to mobile phones, home phones, pagers and via SMS or e-mail. The Australian Early Warning Network is maintained by a private company.

Arek has himself produced a Google Map to show the huge extent of the area affected by the flooding.

You can donate to the Flood Relief Appeal here.

Via: All Things Spatial