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Within the management of urban disasters, geo-information systems (GIS) are used in any of the phases of mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery as most of the required data have a spatial component. Examples of GIS-based decision support systems on mitigation are found in simulation models of floods and earthquakes. In the preparation phase all kinds of spatial observations and models can be used to predict which areas will be threatened. To prepare for adequately responding in case of an actual disaster, these systems are capable of developing realistic scenarios that are used within training and virtual reality (VR) systems. During the actual response phase geo-information is used intensively: for getting an impression of the environment, for routing, for obtaining up-to-date information about the actual situation, etc. In the recovery phase, there is often a high public and political interest to judge the situation - comparing the pre- and post-disaster situation - and to set priorities for the rebuilding.

Despite this potential of GIS-based support for urban disaster management, the use of these systems or even the utilisation of geo-information itself is still very limited in countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The emergency management is usually done with paper maps that are seldom up-to-date. Useful systems to support decision makers in any of the phases of disaster management are nearly completely lacking. To improve the work of decision makers and rescue teams, different premises have to be archived in relation to: meta-information to provide insight on the availability and usefulness of the geo-information itself, the technical equipment of the rescue teams (i.e. communication devices and field computers), and the up-to-date information from the affected areas (images, observations, reports). This paper suggests a framework for “urban and urgent” disaster management to facilitate the work of police forces, fire departments, ambulances and government coordinators in disaster situations by extending and improving the utilisation of geo-information. Within a pre-disaster situation, geo-information support management further can assist planning for prevention and mitigation.

The purpose of this paper is to provide local environmental information to raise community’s environmental awareness, as a cornerstone to improve the quality of the built environment. Next to that, it provides environmental information to professionals and academia in the fields of urbanism and urban microclimate, making it available for reuse.

The wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of sensor platforms deployed at fixed locations in the urban environment, measuring temperature, humidity, noise and air quality. Measurements are transferred to a server via long range wide area network (LoRaWAN). Data are also processed and publicly disseminated via the server. The WSN is made interactive as to increase user involvement, i.e. people who pass by a physical sensor in the city can interact with the sensor platform and request specific environmental data in near real time.

Microclimate phenomena such as temperature, humidity and air quality can be successfully measured with a WSN. Noise measurements are less suitable to send over LoRaWAN due to high temporal variations.

Further testing and development of the sensor modules is needed to ensure consistent measurements and data quality.

Due to time and budget limitations for the project group, it was not possible to gather reliable data for noise and air quality. Therefore, conclusions on the effect of the measurements on the built environment cannot currently be drawn.

An autonomously working low-cost low-energy WSN gathering near real-time environmental data is successfully deployed. Ensuring data quality of the measurement results is subject for upcoming research.