The same vast distances make it hard to react rapidly and effectively to sudden events - an earthquake or a refugee crisis - in parts of the world with shifting populations and poor communications. New technology - fast bandwidth reliable communications, the internet, high resolution satellite imagery - can provide support in these situations. But all potential providers of this technology have their interests - national governments may want resources spent on one region or sector rather than another, academia may want to continue research in an interesting scientific area rather than solve an operational problem, commercial companies might want to push a particular technological solution which may not be the cheapest or the most effective.

This does not mean that industry, academia or national bodies should not play a part. On the contrary, JRC actively encourages them to contribute to an integrated effort. However the presence and support of an organisation such as JRC can provide a real added value to the overall effort, because: the JRC's mission is to provide scientific support to EU policies, the JRC understands the technology involved through hands-on experience, the JRC can deal with information that is confidential to the Commission, and the JRC actively aims to integrate the effort of other organisations.

• Mapping services: navigate or create your own maps
• Modelling and Analysis services: decision support systems
• Experimental and Web services: reusable components for your own website

JRC Global Crisis Atlas

Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System - a United Nations and European Commission initiative

DMA Explorer - interactive maps of the world

Tsunami monitoring and propagation - http://tsunami.jrc.it