Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are highly exposed to disaster risk events that frequently overwhelm their capacity to generate and share spatial information to reduce human–economic losses. The Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) has been widely implemented to support information sharing and management in different domains. In this paper, we aim to identify critical factors to enhance SDI performance to facilitate Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in SIDS. We make use of a three-round Delphi survey and Kendall W coefficient to assess consensus among 28 key international experts in SDI, surveying and DRM. Our results illustrate strong experts’ consensus on identifying a list of 23 most critical factors. We found that people and policy factors matter the most. The insights reported here would assist decision-makers to design roadmaps to enhance sharing of spatial knowledge to build more resilient SIDS and to support their achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Pascal triangle is so simple and rich that it has always attracted the interest of professional and amateur mathematicians. Their coefficients satisfy a myriad of properties. Inspired by the work of Shekatkar et al., we study the divisibility patterns within the elements of the Pascal triangle, through its decomposition into Pascal’s matrices, from the perspective of network science. Applying Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, we determine that the degree distribution of the resulting network follows a power-law distribution. We also study degrees, global and local clustering coefficients, stretching graph, averaged path length and the mixing assortative.

In recent years, a growing number of stakeholders have been taking part in the generation and delivery of geospatial information and services to reduce the impact of severe natural disasters on the communities. This is mainly due to a huge demand for accurate, current and relevant knowledge about the impacted areas for a wide range of applications in risk-informed decision makings. The aim of this paper is to identify users’ requirements for emergency mapping team (EMT) operations in the Dominican Republic (DR). An online survey was applied to collect data from key users involved in the Inter-Institutional Geospatial Information Team in DR. Our findings suggest a set of users’ requirements for EMT operations: (1) standardization; (2) establishing and maintaining a spatial data infrastructure; (3) partnership; (4) effective communication among stakeholders; and (5) capacity building. A better understanding of the users’ requirements and the associated information workflows will lead to a superior level of readiness for EMT operations in DR. This knowledge will support future studies/practices at the local and national levels in the Caribbean region, which share similar challenges in terms of natural hazards and development issues.

The Dominican Republic (DR) is a small island developing state (SIDS) highly exposed to disaster-risk phenomena, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. The Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) enables coordination and sharing of spatial information and services from multiple sources, while emergency mapping operations (EMO) help decision-makers build a common operational picture (COP) of impacted communities. Assessment of future scenarios for SDI implementation to meet emergency mapping goals requires the consideration of a wide range of stakeholders with different objectives. We make use of multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) in the case study of DR to evaluate government, private sector, emergency mapping team (EMT), and academia perspectives of three governance scenarios (Going-Concern, Increasing-Hierarchy, and Increasing-Network) for SDI implementation. Our findings suggest that the ‘Increasing Network’ scenario is the most suitable for SDI implementation. A well-coordinated inter-organizational network through a SDI should empower more stakeholders to participate in EMO. This work highlighted the increase of public-private partnerships as a key criterion to share costs and efforts to effectively support emergency mapping tasks. Findings reported herein could assist decision-makers in designing roadmaps to enhance SDI implementation in the DR. This knowledge will also support future studies/practices in other SIDS, which share similar natural hazards and development issues.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) increasingly face natural hazards that overwhelm their capacity to generate and share spatial-information to reduce human–economic losses. Under such circumstances, the emergency mapping team (EMT) enables a common operational picture of the impacted communities. This paper aims to identify user requirements for EMT operations in the Caribbean and, based on those findings, improve the level of preparedness to deliver information-services that contribute to disaster risk management in the region. The results are built upon a case-study and a survey targeted for technical personnel responsible for emergency mapping in three Caribbean states: the Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia and Sint Maarten. Our findings revealed five user requirements for EMT operations: institutional arrangements, implementation of a Cloud-based spatial data infrastructure, linking community stakeholders, partnerships and capacity building. This study provides the foundation for future EMT developments in the Caribbean region and in others SIDS with similar settings in the world.