Ottawa, ON, January 10, 2005 - DM Solutions Group Inc., a leading Web mapping solutions company, and the University of Ottawa, today announced the release of the Tsunami Disaster Mapping Portal (DMapP) - a Website to help aid workers coordinate their work during the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Indian Ocean Basin.

This interactive, Internet-based infrastructure provides free access to urgently needed current and historical spatial data for planners and workers – both for short-term emergency needs as well as post-disaster supplies distribution, rehabilitation planning, and infrastructure restoration. "This initiative provides an opportunity to connect, in a very effective way, the vast amount of data accumulating around the world with the people who need it most," said Dave McIlhagga, DM Solutions Group’s president.
DM Solutions Group was able to create such a targeted data portal in very little time because of the power of the Open Source technologies with which it builds all its Web-mapping solutions. "With a combination of specialized technical skills and software designed for rapid application deployment, and with the help of the University of Ottawa and several international contributors, DM Solutions Group was able to pull together this initial application in less than a week,” added McIlhagga.

The portal also serves as a channel for those with observations from the affected regions to share their high-quality data with other organizations. The list of data providers and integrators involved in this international effort has already started to multiply. The Laboratory for Applied Geomatics and GIS Science (LAGGISS) at the University of Ottawa has been instrumental in helping this humanitarian effort get off the ground, including helping obtain and integrate space shuttle and satellite observations. “This effort has allowed many geomatics students at our University to contribute their expertise to help the devastated regions,” said Mike Sawada, director of LAGGISS. “The generosity of DM Solutions Group in donating time and resources is an outstanding example of the responsiveness and dedication of Canadian private companies.”

The Laboratory for Applied Geomatics and GIS Science at the University of Ottawa has been funded in part by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, an independent corporation created in 1997 by the Government of Canada to
fund research infrastructure.  "We commend the project leaders at LAGGISS and the staff at DM Solutions Group for their vision and commitment to building this powerful and innovative facility," said Dr. Eliot Phillipson, President and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation. "The CFI is proud to be a partner in a project that will contribute in such a meaningful and timely way to the Tsunami disaster relief efforts."
 

As well, universities in Thailand and Japan have already contributed high-quality pre- and post-tsunami data for inclusion in the data portal. It is hoped that other organizations, including the many government and aid agencies converging on the disaster area, will start to contribute their latest data, so that effective maps and applications which further disaster mitigation can be shared with the worldwide aid community. As the amount of data provided grows, the power of this project will grow exponentially.

For a better idea of what the Tsunami Disaster Mapping Portal can do, try it out for yourself by visiting http://www.dmsolutions.ca/solutions/tsunami.html.

 
About DM Solutions Group Inc.
A major provider of Web and desktop mapping solutions, DM Solutions Group Inc. leads the development of open source mapping technology. Using its Web-mapping toolkit, which includes tools like MapServer, Chameleon, and MapLab, DM Solutions Group works with organizations wanting to deploy Web-mapping infrastructures that incorporate georeferenced data from any server, anywhere in the world.

Founded in 1998, DM Solutions Group is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and operates an office in Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada. For more information visit www.dmsolutions.ca.

 
About the University of Ottawa
Founded in 1848, the University of Ottawa has grown to become the largest bilingual university in the country, the fourth-largest university in Ontario and one of the National Capital's largest employers.

The University of Ottawa, a research-intensive institution, employs approximately 3,000 staff and has more than 30,000 full- and part-time students. It also pumps more than $1 billion annually into the provincial economy.

Note: The tsunami web application was featured last week at GISuser in this Spotlight Feature