Spatial data infrastructure and geovisualization in emergency management

Support for an emergency management (EM) is one of the important requests for contemporary cartography. Map use dernands high flexibility during emergency situations and variety of outputs according to changing situations, requested scope of decision making, and various users involved. Electronic maps are offering more flexible possibilities than traditional analogue maps, but nowadays, despite huge data sources for EM are Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based, still many cartographic interfaces are even less efficient copies of former analogue maps. At the base of this analysis, the focus on the role of GIS, geovisualization, and sensor technologies in emergency management is overviewed. Global description of positional accuracy, projection handling, geodata harmonization, and quality management for EM are described.