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Track: Emergency Management and Public Safety
Fawzi Kabbara
Khatib & Alami
PO Box 14/6203
Beirut,
LEBANON
Telephone: 9611-603315
Fax: 9611-603-301
E-mail: kab10@calvacom.fr
Nader Soubra
GIS in War Damage Assessment Case of South Lebanon
Defining Issue: After the April 1996 Israeli attack on South Lebanon, Khatib & Alami was asked by the Higher Relief Council (HRC) and through a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to conduct a damage assessment survey and submit a report on the magnitude of the damage inflicted on the country due to this aggression. Khatib & Alami engineers and field crews were organized into survey teams and proceeded to the action area (cities and villages in South Lebanon) to survey the damages inflicted onto the roads, public buildings, schools, electrical utilities, telephones, water resources, and sewers. GIS Solution: ArcInfo software was used to produce a thematic map of the southern parts of Lebanon at a scale of 1:90,000 in order to illustrate the result of the damage assessment survey. This map included the political and administrative boundaries, the location and population distribution of towns, the roads network, and the damage type. The geographic representations perceived by the GIS approach
generated many correlations between the different types of damages noted, the magnitude of the damages, and the affected population. This correlation helped the Lebanese government in setting priorities for its fast track reconstruction process. It helped the Higher Relief Council in locating its emergency centers. It helped the Lebanese army in understanding the objectives of the attack. Finally, it gave the United Nations a quantitative figure about the losses in properties, roads, and utilities.
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