The use of geographic information systems(GIS) for rapid assessment of health facilities following a disaster: the case of the tsunami disaster in the province of Aceh

Background: The tsunami disaster in the province of Aceh in December 2004 caused more than 200.000 casualties, 500.000 people became homeless and a lot of infrastructures was destroyed including health facilities. A health facilities assessment was needed to provide detailed information with regards to rehabilitation and reconstruction of health services provision after the disaster. This article aims to describe the process of the rapid assessment, analyse the field results and discussing the use of free GIS software during the whole process.