Dr Tim Foresman, world-renowned disaster expert involved in Tsunami aftermath, is in Brisbane and available for comment.
Former UN Chief Environmental Scientist Dr Foresman, from QUT, was sent to the worst tsunami-affected regions a few days after the massive waves killed more than a quarter of a million people. He went as the former co-chair of the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (co-chair with the World Health Organization) by special request of the US State Department's Humanitarian Information Unit.
- He found: "200 miles of coastline that was totally devastated, worse than a war zone"
- His job was to: "set up disaster relief mapping operations at the Asian Institute of Technology in collaboration with the UN Environment Program regional office." He set up a program called map relief with his associates to get timely maps and satellite images into the hands of front line relief workers for food and medical aid.
- Just two weeks before the tsunami hit, Dr Foresman had presented to the US State Department's Humanitarian Information Unit the expected scenario for responses to a major disaster.
- "The scenario was bleak due to the level of unpreparedness around the developing world and the lack of coordination among national and international organisations in times of disaster response."
- Dr Foresman had previously led the coordination of the UN's agencies including humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts, emergency response, food security, health security and a litany of networked collaborating organizations for unifying the assets for mapping, monitoring, and managing disasters with satellites and computers networks.
- He served at NASA Headquarters on the Global Disaster Information Network panel and took the lead role in NASA's Digital Earth Program which laid the groundwork for Google Earth.
Today, Dr Foresman is the SIBA Chair of Spatial Information at QUT where he works to bring industry, government and academia together to speed up the world's response to natural disasters.
Dr Foresman is available to speak about the tsunami, what we learnt from it, and how Australia and Queensland are placed to day to face disasters of such magnitude and how we can serve as a global model for resilience and disaster response.
Media contact: Niki Widdowson, QUT media, 07 3138 2999 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au
