The following pages describe the initial maps that might be needed in the early stages of a response depending on your role.

Are you planning a response or working in one and not sure which maps can be useful to get you started? Below are our recommendations on which ones can get you off on the right foot.

Getting an understanding of the country or area

These maps will give you an understanding of the country you are in from where the major towns and cities are to which are the most populated places and a baseline of the existing population.

• Country overview

• Administration boundaries and pcodes

• Infrastructure

• Baseline population

Getting an understanding of the response

These maps will give you an understanding of the disaster itself, who and where the affected population is and which organisations are doing what and where.

• Situational overview

• Affected population

• Who-What-Where

Are you planning a response or working in one and not sure which maps can be useful to get you started? Below are our recommendations on which ones can get you off on the right foot.

Search and rescue activities

The following maps support in the operational needs of the search and rescue phase

• Search and rescue sectorisation

Understanding the hazards

These are dependant of the response.

• Geological hazards - earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, etc.

• Meteorological or climate hazards - storms and cyclones

Getting an understanding of the country or area

These maps will give you an understanding of the country you are in from where the major towns and cities are to which are the most populated places and a baseline of the existing population.

• Country overview

• Administration boundaries and pcodes

• Infrastructure

• Baseline population

Scope and scale of the response

These maps will give you an understanding of the disaster itself, who and where the affected population is and which organisations are doing what and where.

• Situational overview

• Affected population

• Who-What-Where

Are you the GIS or information management officer for a response? The following page describes which maps you should prioritise in getting setup and created. Not only will they be helpful for your organisation, they are also the maps that can be used as background mapping for the other map requests you may receive.

• Reference maps

Other key maps

The following maps are also key to a response and you should be ready to prepare these as early as possible so that you can have them close to ready before the request is received.

• Situational overview

• Affected population

• Who-What-Where