Cyclone Shelter Management Information System (CYSMIS)
Tropical cyclones accompanied by storm surges are one of the frequent
major disasters in Bangladesh. More than 5 million people living in High
Risk Areas (HRA) of the coast are extremely vulnerable to cyclonic
disaster. The Government of Bangladesh together with other agencies
to date has built 2895 cyclone shelters. In 2004 an initiatives has
been taken by to accumulate information of these shelters in an organized
and accessible database for maintenance and planning.
Disaster Management Bureau (DMB) with technical support from CEGIS and
financial support from USAID and CARE conducted a survey in
January-February 2004 to gather physical and management information
of the existing cyclone shelters (CYSMIS). This was validated and
refined in December 2004. In order to better planning, management and
maintenance a criteria based framework, it has been developed for
decision making by different stakeholders. The CYSMIS database will
assist disaster practitioners and other stakeholders to access information
about existing cyclone shelters situated in high-risk cyclone zones. The
CYSMIS database will also assist development partners in decision-making
process by helping to prioritize resource allocation for further
work. However, this system has been developed with a user friendly CD of
CYSMIS which will give details of each individual shelter e.g. location
and capacity, facilities and use, existing conditions of the shelter with
photograph, name of donor, age/date of establishment, maintenance
mechanism, distance from nearby shelter etc.
