GIS Use Cases

American Red Cross International Services Department (ISD) has piloted and refined applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to its core programming and response activities. In this time, we’ve found that the best tools and the most effcetive approaches meant little without strong relationships with our program staff rooted in their day-to-day realities of program management and national society engagement.

The use cases that follow capture our thoughts on some of the most common or important ways GIS can help our work. Each use case shows how a specific application of GIS can assist a given program or national society and what the ideal process is to make it happen. Some of these use cases overlap or integrate with one another; others are standalone.