Data integration and visualization for crisis applications

Satellite data play an increasingly important role in supporting decision making in disaster management. Rapid data integration and visualization are essential to make data accessible and convey the results in an easier to perceive way. Especially when presenting information to a non-expert audience, visualization of the data and its content improves the understanding of the situation at hand. The paper gives an overview of the current status of data integration and visualisation technologies including an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the technologies available. It also highlights several aspects of visualisation strategies using technologies such as predefined landscape models, and tools including 2D and 3D web viewers and globe viewers, and discusses the inextricable link between data integration and visualization.