Flooding is a widely occurring natural hazard that noticeably damages property, people, and the environment. In the context of climate change, the integration of spatial planning with flood-risk management has gained prominence as an approach to mitigating the risks of flooding. The absence of easy access to integrated and high-quality information, and the technologies and tools to use information are among the factors that impede this integration. Limited research has been conducted to develop a framework and to investigate the role of information and technologies in this integration. This study draws primarily on the European experiences and literature and identifies three dimensions of the integration of spatial planning with flood-risk management: territorial, policy, and institutional. To facilitate integration and in accord with these three dimensions, a Spatially Integrated Policy Infrastructure (SIPI) is conceptualised that encompasses data and information, decision support and analysis tools, and access tools and protocols. This study presents the connections between SIPI elements and integration dimensions, which is important for a better understanding of roles of geographic information and technologies in integration. The conceptual framework of SIPI will govern further development and evaluation of SIPI

Quantifying and mapping resilience and social vulnerability is a widely used technique to support risk management, with recent years seeing a proliferation of applications across the Global South. To synthesise this emerging literature, we conducted a systematic review of applications of social vulnerability and resilience frameworks in Lower and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) using the PRISMA methodology. 2152 papers were extracted from 15 databases and then screened according to our pre-defined criteria, leaving 68 studies for full text analysis. Our analysis revealed that: (1) Most studies consider vulnerability or resilience to be generic properties of social systems; (2) Few papers measured vulnerability or resilience in a way that tests whether they are relatively stable or dynamic features of social systems; (3) Many applications rely on stock applications of existing frameworks, with little adaptation to specific cultural, societal or economic contexts; (4) There is a lack of systematic validation; (5) More hypothesis-driven studies (as opposed to descriptive mapping exercises) are required in order to develop a better understanding of the mechanisms through which vulnerability and resilience shape the capacity to prepare for, respond and recover from disasters.

The quality of dynamic map symbols plays an important role in the representation of spatial-temporal changes. This paper reports an investigation into the quality of dynamic symbols. To assess the quality of such symbols, a set of traffic flow data is used for the production of different kinds of dynamic maps, with focus on four variables, i.e. size, color, frame rate and display format. Two quantitative measures are used for analysis, i.e. deviation and response time. A set of traffic data is used for the production of dynamic maps for evaluation. The experimental results show that the size is more efficient and more effective than color for dynamic maps with the same frame rate and display format. The most efficient and effective color class number is 10 on the large format display such as 1024 × 768 pixels. And the most efficient and effective size class number is 15 on large format display such as 1024 × 768 pixels. The effective frame rate for dynamic map animation is smaller than that of the general...

Flooding is expected to become more common and more severe as climate change progresses. Past and ongoing research suggests that a better integration between spatial planning as a nonstructural measure and flood risk management is one way to deal with the problems related to flooding. In order to better understand the potential of such integration, the case of the River Dodder catchment in Ireland is used to examine the extent to which flood objectives are integrated with spatial plans and whether the actual development reflects the attempts to plan and manage potential flooding. The study reveals that recent legislation formally supports the integration of spatial planning and flood risk management. In turn, such legal requirements are reflected in spatial plans that demonstrate increasing attention to flood risk. However, the greater consideration of flooding in policy terms did not always coincide with flooding-conscious development. Initial evidence seen in this case shows that the actual development may occur against preservation policies that are prescribed in the plans and may lack a comprehensive consideration of flood risks. It is therefore concluded that the link between legislation, policy, and development is complex and indirect, and that a closer look at the factors that intervene in their relationship and determine the nature of their causality (if any), would offer further insight into the prospects of integration of spatial planning and flood risk management.

The policy integration of spatial planning and flood risk management is a promising approach to mitigate flooding. Scholars indicate that the absence of appropriate information base and technological capacity is among the factors impeding this integration. This study found that what needs to be improved is the access to geographic information and geographic technologies by individual policy makers, rather than the ownership of such resources by one organisation as a whole. Based on this finding, we designed the goals and functions for a Spatially Integrated Policy Infrastructure (SIPI) which shares not only geographic information but also models and analysis tools. A prototype of SIPI was also developed as an illustration of the selected functions of this SIPI. The design of SIPI is consistent with other frontier studies and projects in the field of GIS and planning. The development process also provides experience for future studies and development of infrastructures that aim at supporting policy integration.