GIS Maps to Communicate Emergency Preparedness: How Useable Are They for Inner City Residents?
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Christina Zarcadoolas
Despite the growing popularity of Geographic Information System (GIS) information maps as a public health tool, there are no published studies of low-average and low literacy adults' abilities to read and use GIS information presenting emergency preparedness information. We hypothesized that GIS maps are hard to read for at least the 50% of adults in the US reading at 8th grade level or lower (Kirsch et al., 1993). Using a current GIS map used in New York City's Office of Emergency Management Storm Surge Report researchers conducted interviews with 178 English and Spanish speaking residents of East and Central Harlem. Findings reveal that a majority of adults who have not completed high school could not read and use the maps for basic and vital information, including identifying if they lived in a hurricane evacuation zone, and locating where the nearest evacuation center to their home was. This study concludes there is a real and dangerous gap between the language and design of GIS and the abilities of millions of adults to interpret and use this information as currently presented.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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- Community Training in Bioterror Response
- Multi-Modal Mass Evacuation in Upstate New York: A Review of Disaster Plans
- An Assessment of the Cultural Appropriateness of Emergency Preparedness Communication for Low Income Minorities
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Related Research Article
- Relevant Research in Other Publications
- Book Review
- Review of The Storm by Ivor van Heerden
- Review of System Under Stress
- Review of Technology in Emergency Management
- Review of Disaster Response and Homeland Security
- Review of Introduction to International Disaster Management
- Communication/News
- Building an Emergency Response Competency System: Optimizing Emergency Personnel Mobilization
- So Are You Still Active in the Field, Or Do You Just Teach?
- Toward a National Hazards Risk Assessment
- Ready, Set, Go: Recruitment, Training, Coordination, and Retention Values for All-Hazard Partnerships
- Testimony on Needed Emergency Management Reforms
- GIS Maps to Communicate Emergency Preparedness: How Useable Are They for Inner City Residents?
- Research Article
- Community Training in Bioterror Response
- Multi-Modal Mass Evacuation in Upstate New York: A Review of Disaster Plans
- An Assessment of the Cultural Appropriateness of Emergency Preparedness Communication for Low Income Minorities
- Systems Dynamics Model of Al-Qa'ida and United States "Competition"
