Surficial erosion analysis of Rakautara study area, Kaikoura

Abstract

Few areas of the application of geographical information system technology can be as significant or relevant as the management of natural or technical hazards. Depending on the application, geographical information systems can assist in identifying possibilities and formulating solutions. The 1990's have been declared the 'International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction'. Hopefully, geographical information systems in some way can help mitigate the effects of hazards upon urban populations, which can occur at any time in the most improbable of places. Historically, the spatial relationships relevant to hazard assessment including the land, its characteristics, and all the cultural structures and boundaries imposed on it, have been depicted through the medium of printed maps. Maps have been, and will continue to be, important means for storing and portraying spatial information, although they pose some limitations to the user, particularly those resulting from the need to associate information presented on separate maps. Also, the value of the printed maps for representing various relationships is reducing as time proceeds, causing current information to become out-of-date Today, it is possible to address these problems with the capabilities of digital computers and software for handling geographic data. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are increasingly being used to input, store, manipulate, and display geographically-referenced data to support the decision-making process, as well as performing analysis(1) introduce the reader to the techniques and functional capabilities of geographic information systems, and (2) illustrate the use of a GIS package, ARC/INFO, with respect to a hazard application, namely slope movements