In general, timely information on the development of hazards as well as general information on risks, hazards, and opportunities remains fragmented and difficult to locate. To begin to address these and other gaps, prototype tools are being developed. NOAA has sponsored a prototype information server for the group. This server was intended to demonstrate timely access to satellite-derived data and information products (i.e., "one stop shopping") to support various facets of disaster management. A number of agencies participated in the development of this service, providing links to their data and information services, and developing additional support tools for the project. A group information server team has supported these efforts. As with the rest of the DMSG, the tools team is currently completing its activities. This report provides a summary of the teams' activities, identifies goals that were not achieved, describes why goals were not achieved (lessons learned), and offers ideas on how others might achieve these goals in the future as the work of the DMSG is carried forward in other fora.

Many of the activities, such as hazard theme pages and links to other hazard related web sites have been useful for providing information to a broad range of users and potential users of hazard information. The reports and meeting summaries of the DMSG have been used and referenced by others. Sometimes the "Click here to e-mail us" has been used as a focal point for soliciting help in addressing specific disaster issues. In this way, requests for data, information on what data is useful, or questions regarding scientific phenomena related to specific disasters are received and relayed to members of DMSG. Often an e-mail dialogue ensues that leads to resolving the issue.

A key goal of providing a user-friendly Internet search capability to access specific data, derived products and other information for disaster managers has remained elusive. Key problems, such as -- lack of consistent, consensus on terminology; the cost and difficulty of achieving the state of the art for search technology; and the need for specific scenarios have limited achieving this goal. Ironically, as the work of the team is winding down, significant progress in solving these problems is emerging. Hopefully, this will encourage others to take up the challenge.

Quite often users are not familiar with the terminology of data providers. In fact, user communities often have their own terminology that is quite different from data providers and other user communities. Within some user communities there is no standardized terminology established. A key goal of the information tools development has been to build a bridge between user and data provider terminology for selected user communities. The goal was to use the hazard team activities to derive appropriate terminology where standardized terminology and specific scenarios were not available. Previous annual hazard team reports did provide useful terminology, but not until this final report have scenarios been defined. Building on the scenarios of the International Charter for Space and Major Disasters, hazard teams have defined several additional useful scenarios. This set of scenarios will act as a prototype and template for adding additional scenarios and hazard types in the future. On-going collaboration with activities of UN organizations such as OOSA and ISDR as well as the Internatianal Charter will be crucial to maintaining and increasing interaction with a broader user community as well as making this effort more successful. For example, the continuation of user-oriented workshops, co-sponsored by UN organizations and CEOS or CEOS agencies, is strongly encouraged.

It has been the goal of the information tools team to have several layers for information access, ranging from a simple list of key data providers, to the hazard specific scenarios discussed in the last paragraph, to an Internet-based search of several Earth observing data and product catalogs. The simple list of data providers should include key contact information including contact person, telephone number, fax number, address, and Internet URL if available. When available, contact information as provided by the CEOS International Directory Network (IDN) and other FGDC compliant catalogs would be used. This list would start as a short list focused primarily on space agencies, and grow from there. Unfortunately, the tools team focused on the more difficult layers, and as a result did not implement the layer that would have been easiest. The lesson learned here is to do the simplest first.

A third layer would be a search of existing on-line catalogs including the CEOS IDN and other FGDC compliant catalogs. The key to making this search user-friendlier is to develop a thesaurus of terms to translate from user-friendly terms to catalog terms. To do this properly, a catalog with controlled content such as the IDN is required. The information tools team has begun work with the Working Group on Systems and Services (WGISS) IDN task team to develop this layer. The technology for doing catalog searches on the Internet has progressed to the point that practical implementation methods are possible. With the demise of the DMSG tools team, hopefully others will pick up coordination with catalog activities such as the IDN.

Other information tools could provide additional user-friendly features such as visualization tools or orbital tools. Visualization tools will be useful to training in the use of satellite data. Orbital tools would provide a potential user with a list of satellites that has recently or will soon pass over the site of a recent disaster. WGISS task teams could be helpful to those who want to explore and implement capabilities of this type in the future.

A general lesson learned is that the level of effort to maintain the DMSG website properly is much higher than was expected. Even seemingly simple tasks, such as maintaining a current list of upcoming events or hot events, requires constant surveillance of activities. Although simple in nature, they require many hours each week to accomplish.

Although there were problems that kept the information tools team from fulfilling all of its goals, many of these problems are being addressed. User communities are working to develop more consistent, consensus terminology. The cost and state of the art for search technology has progressed to the point that practical Internet implementations are feasible. The work of the Hazard Teams and the on going work of the Internatianal Charter have established a baseline for future hazard scenarios. Hopefully, this will encourage others to work toward achieving the identified, but unaccomplished goals that were set under the work of the DMSG.

The information server web site URL is:  http://disaster.ceos.org

1. Levin Lauritson, Chair   NOAA/NESDIS/OSDPD (USA)
2. Luc Nguyen, Webmaster   SPS Technologies, Inc. supporting NOAA (USA)
3. Susan McLean    NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC (USA)
4. Hazard Team Chairs