To assist city planners, public safety officials, educators and other stakeholders in readily accessing information about hazards and risks in their cities and to understand the spatial context in which multiple hazards impact urban environments, the Pacific Disaster Center and EMI have partnered to implement Internet-based Map Viewers (MEGA-View), a component of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), for various megacities in the EMI network. A prototype for the entire Metro Manila area, an urban center of 10 million comprising 13 cities and 4 municipalities, has already been developed for earthquakes. Other hazards will be incorporated in the future.

This easy-to-use interactive tool allows users from an Internet browser to retrieve useful information and maps from datasets such as hazards, transportation, public facilities, emergency services, elevation, and land use/zoning. These data- sets can be viewed through high-resolution imagery. MEGA-View was developed at PDC’s main office in Maui, Hawaii, but the ultimate goal is to transfer this capability to each city so that they may update and maintain their own Map Viewer.

[Access MEGA-View] [Background Information] [User’s Guide]