Mapping Resilience: GIS‑Driven Multi‑Hazard Risk Governance and Economic Burden Reduction in Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

Himachal Pradesh faces recurrent multi-hazard risks arising from landslides, floods, cloudbursts, earthquakes, avalanches, and forest fires, with substantial consequences for infrastructure, livelihoods, economic activity, and public finances. This targeted literature review examines how Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and allied geospatial technologies support disaster risk management and economic risk reduction across the state. Evidence was synthesized from peer-reviewed studies, government policies and plans, technical reports, institutional repositories, and relevant grey literature published between 2010 and 2026. The review assesses major applications, including the Hazard Risk and Vulnerability Atlas, landslide susceptibility and inventory mapping, rainfall-based early-warning systems, and emerging urban resilience platforms. Findings indicate that GIS can reduce disaster-related economic burdens by informing land-use and infrastructure planning, protecting exposed assets, improving emergency routing, prioritising mitigation expenditure, supporting post-disaster assessment, and limiting disruption to agriculture, tourism, and essential services. However, the economic benefits of these systems remain insufficiently quantified. Fragmented institutional coordination, limited technical capacity, inconsistent data updating, weak local-level integration, and unequal warning dissemination further restrict operational effectiveness. Stronger integration of GIS into statutory planning, economic evaluation, district-level decision systems, and participatory risk communication is essential to translate spatial intelligence into measurable, equitable, and fiscally sustainable resilience.