On 3 September 2013, UNOOSA/UN-SPIDER presented a new report which shows the economic, humanitarian and organizational benefits of applying geoinformation to disaster management. The report "The Value of Geo-Information for Disaster and Risk Management (VALID): Benefit Analysis and Stakeholder Assessment" was edited by Professor Orhan Altan of the Istanbul Technical University and Member of the Executive Board of the International Council for Science. The publication aims to raise awareness and to help set priorities in research and development.
Assessing the economic value of applying geospatial information in Disaster and Risk Management is an essential topic in the VALID project. The crucial issue is to determine, in monetary figures, what difference is made by utilizing specific geoinformation products in specific Disaster Risk Management situations.
A web-based poll was carried out on the UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portal, where all stakeholders were given the opportunity to identify the 10 most important geodata products on a longlist containing 51 items, such as hazard-specific risk maps, vulnerability maps, damage assessment maps, and monitoring systems.
In the follow-on of the VALID Round Table in May 2011 at the seventh International Symposium on Geo-information for Disaster Management (Gi4DM) in Antalya, the project has gained considerable scientific support. VALID (The Value of Geo-Information for Disaster and Risk Management) is planned as another joint publication of the JBGIS (Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies) and UNOOSA.
With the “Best Practices Booklet”, knowledge has been provided on what can be done with appropriate geoinformation to support disaster management: methods, systems, applications, experiences. As a next logical step it would be useful to provide information on what it is worth: an evaluation of benefits. A publication to that end would further help
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