Considerations for Debris Management vary based on disaster type (man made, natural disaster) but all use GIS to support them. Typically, debris removal focuses on type of collection and disposal methods used, locations for debris, transportation issues related to hauling, assocated cost tracking, and estimating the speed with which the problem can be addressed.

---

Crawl Planning with paper maps is a good place to start – using GIS to identify temporary Debris Removal storage sites depicts locations where agencies can store disaster debris until a later time – for forensics and processing. This planning can include contingincies that are economic too – identifying the need for contracts for hauling to be created ahead of time, and understanding the impact of policies. One example is that FEMA may only pay for the movement of debris once. Large scale disasters may require a GIS support element to be established exclusively for resolving the problems associated with debris management.	Walk Incorporating the planning analysis into a web-based mapping environment allows a larger audience to understand the two basic problems of debris management; How much and what types of debris are to be removed? And where can the debris be disposed of? When this online environment is established, the incident specific data can begin to be viewed in the context of the planning that has been done.	Run Perhaps the most powerful contribution GIS makes in this realm is to support modeling the amount of debris. GIS provides models that forcast debris amounts based on the extent of the damage. They consider factors like cubic yards of debris generated per household category per storm, vegetative cover, commercial density, and precipitation.
Example: Search Debris at ArcGIS Online	Example: Search Debris at ArcGIS Online	Example: USACE Disaster Impact Models

---

More Resources