Author(s)

Sundaralingam Suthakaran¹, Sauri Jayakody², Shyamantha Subasinghe³, Nileesha Seneviratne², Ranjith Alahakoon⁴

¹Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Culture, Eastern University, Chenkaladi, Sri Lanka.
²Department of Town and Country Planning, Faculty of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
³Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
⁴Disaster Management Center, Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka.

The use of open-source data and tools in disaster exposure mapping is presented in this paper. Disaster exposure is a collection of the element at risk to potential loss. Gampaha divisional secretariat (DS) is a study area laid on the lower part of the Attanagalu Oya river basin. As the geospatial tools, OpenStreetMap (OSM), Java OpenStreetMap (JOSM), QGIS, GPS Essentials, and Open Map Kit (OMK) are used. The elements of disaster exposure, including the number of people or types of assets, are surveyed and inventoried using the OSM platforms. Local, national, and international agencies produce and evaluate the data. The study developed spatial data for building footprints of 165,000 households, street lengths of 2300 km, hospital units of 16, and utility units of 2300. This could overcome the main challenges of exposure mapping in the area. The procedure developed in the exposure mapping can be used in a data-sparse environment. Exposure mapping is generally used to estimate the impact of hazards or disasters, which are essential in effective disaster management. How are there still remaining challenges in disaster exposure mapping such as less awareness about the mapping procedure, lack of government support, internet access, hardware, and inability to understand the value of exposure mapping?

Spatial Data, Disaster Management, Exposure Mapping, Open-Source Software

Suthakaran, S. , Jayakody, S. , Subasinghe, S. , Seneviratne, N. and Alahakoon, R. (2022) Mapping the Flood Risk Exposure Using Open-Source Geospatial Tools and Techniques: A Case of Gampaha Divisional Secretariat Division, Sri Lanka. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 10, 18-31. doi: 10.4236/gep.2022.1010002.