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2019 | Book

Information Technology in Disaster Risk Reduction

Third IFIP TC 5 DCITDRR International Conference, ITDRR 2018, Held at the 24th IFIP World Computer Congress, WCC 2018, Poznan, Poland, September 20–21, 2018, Revised Selected Papers

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About this book

This volume constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the Third IFIP TC 5 DCITDRR International Conference on Information Technology in Disaster Risk Reduction, ITDRR 2018, held as part of the 24th IFIP World Computer Congress, WCC 2018, in Poznan, Poland, in September 2018.

The 12 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 32 submissions. The papers focus on various aspects and challenges of coping with disaster risk reduction. The main topics include areas such as natural disasters, big data, cloud computing, Internet of Things, mobile computing, emergency management, disaster information processing, and disaster risk assessment and management.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Recovery Watcher: A Disaster Communication System for Situation Awareness and Its Use for Barrier-Free Information Provision
Abstract
Since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995 as well as the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, we have been aware of the needs for information processing for disaster response and recovery in Japan. This area of research has been led by researchers in the United States of America and Europe in terms of information processing for emergency management to a great extent. While we have had many natural disasters in Japan, only a few of the researchers in information processing have been working on this issue. From this perspective, we try to use our IT knowledge to implement systems to be used in disaster response and recovery so that we could see what could be usable. Moreover, we explored the needs and seeds for disaster information processing in Iwate, Japan. We interviewed local government officials, doctors and university administrators and found the needs for situation awareness for rescue. In this paper, we introduce our work on recovery watcher, designed primarily for reporting how recovery goes from disaster area, and its use for situation awareness in emergency response. Moreover, we show that those systems are usable for a support of barrier-free as well in terms of information provision.
Yuko Murayama, Kayoko Yamamoto, Jun Sasaki
Preparing a Smart Environment to Decision-Making in Emergency Traffic Control Management
Abstract
This work addresses the smart environments theme and presents a framework for decision making based on information from an important Brazilian city, which have technologies used in the preparation, monitoring and management of traffic emergencies. The technological resources that the city has are exposed, as well as statistical data showing a panorama of traffic in recent years. The technologies analyzed in the context of the framework are useful in decisions-making, thus creating an environment capable of acquiring knowledge about all those who are involved in it (its inhabitants and everything that surrounds them) and applying the knowledge, adapting it to the monitoring, in the emergency preparedness. Also, simulations of scenarios that could be constructed were presented if new components were inserted in the environment or if there were specific data for a purpose. Such simulations guide future efforts to improve the environment and to improve activities relevant to the day-to-day traffic of cities.
Jacimar F. Tavares, Marcos R. S. Borges, Adriana S. Vivacqua
A Systematic Review on the Use of Groupware Technologies in Emergency Management
Abstract
The term groupware has been used in the context of emergencies aimed at, among other things, allowing the management and execution of emergencies to be carried out by more than one involved, at the same time, cooperating and/or coordinating. This work aims to analyze the state of the art about groupware technologies created by researchers to assist in the management of emergencies. In this sense, the technologies and their areas of action were surveyed and analyzed: pre-emergency event (preparation and mitigation, where planning and preparation for a possible emergency occur; during the emergency (whose objective is to promote the execution of actions and follow); and post emergency event, which comprises the phase of restructuring, reconstruction and regeneration, for example, of the sites hit by the emergency. The results of the systematic literature review show that in the last years there has been more effort in the design of groupware technologies that work in pre and post-emergence to detriment of the post-emergency phase, opening up the possibility for developers of groupware technologies to consider exploiting such phase.
Jacimar F. Tavares, Leandro da Silva Gonçalves, Patrícia do Amaral Gurgel M. Gonçalves, Marcos R. S. Borges
CBRN Risk Analysis Using the Analytical Tools of the WAZkA System
Abstract
The paper presents the set of analytical tools for CBRN risk analysis. They are modules of WAZkA system, which is IT system supporting the analysis of contamination risks and alarming in Poland. The Event Tree is a graphical representation of a chronological sequence of events, substantial from the point of view of functioning of the object, which occur after a given event that initiates such sequence. Events Tree Analyser tool, which implements Event Tree, was built according to client-server architecture and apart from web browser it does not require any additional user-installed software. If the Event Tree is associated with an initiating event that has its location, the prototype of WAZkA system allows the calculation of the so-called Loss Table. Each row in the Loss Table corresponds to a single effect in the event tree (leaf of the tree). Having threat zones from simulation experiment (e.g. Aloha software), a specialized expert algorithm is launched, which calculates the potential human losses in each zone and inputs them in the Loss Table. Finally, the Common Operational Picture. Visualization module is used to visualize results of simulation and analyses.
Ryszard Antkiewicz, Zbigniew Tarapata, Dariusz Pierzchała, Jarosław Rulka, Andrzej Najgebauer
Analyzing Cascading Effects in Interdependent Critical Infrastructures
Abstract
Critical Infrastructures (CIs) are resources that are essential for the performance of society, including its economy and its security. Large-scale disasters, whether natural or man-made, can have devastating primary (direct) effects on some CI and significant indirect effects (cascading effects) on other CIs, because CIs are interconnected and depend on each other’s services. Recent work by Laugé et al. expressed the dependency values among CIs as dependency matrices for various durations of the primary CI failure. For better preparedness and mitigation of CI failures knowledge of the weak points in CI interdependencies is crucial. To this effect, we have developed a MATLAB code that identifies the forward paths and loops between pairs of CIs based on a simplified version of Laugé’s matrices. The code calculates the parallel forward paths and loops dependencies to identify and quantify the amplification of cascading effects of any disruption that might hit one of the CIs included in the research. A main consequence, which has implications for expert assessment of dependencies between CIs, is that the cascading effects are not limited to the direct values expressed in the dependency matrices.
Ahmed Abdelgawad, Mohamed Saleh, Jose Gonzalez
Strategy of Effective Decision-Making in Planning and Elimination of Consequences of Emergency Situations
Abstract
Problem of decision-making in planning and elimination of consequences of emergency situations is considered. Sources of increasing of the effectiveness of measures oriented to prevention and elimination of consequences of emergency situations are discussed. Importance of decision-making in the process of the prevention, localization and liquidation of consequences of emergency situations is underlined. Problems of determining rational resources and funds to be allocated for prevention and liquidation of emergency situations are discussed. The main goal of a system for protection from emergency situations is defined as reduction or prevention of damage to human health and life, the objects of the economy and the environment arising as a result of accidents, catastrophes and natural disasters. Strategy of effective decision-making in planning and elimination of consequences of emergency situations is proposed and discussed. A system of partial indicators that characterize the prevented damage from emergency situations is proposed. To find the optimal resource allocation corresponded to the predicted disaster, the method of ideal point is used. Some examples are given and discussed.
Igor Grebennik, Viktor Reshetnik, Ata Ovezgeldyyev, Valerii Ivanov, Inna Urniaieva
Geological – Geomorphological Features of River Catchments in Flood Susceptibility Assessment (on the Example of Middle Struma Valley, Bulgaria)
Abstract
The geological-geomorphological features of the river catchments control flood propagation by influencing the surface runoff and its redistribution to surface and underground flow. The paper analyses the geological-geomorphological susceptibility to floods in a part of the river Struma valley – Municipalities Kresna and Strumyani (Bulgaria, EU). The following parameters are considered: lithology (presented by water permeability, capacity and type of rock reservoirs), distance from streams/river, slopes and fluvial landforms. Raster layers for each one of these parameters are created in geographic information system (GIS) environment and susceptibility rates are assigned. The flood susceptibility map is elaborated by spatial weighted sum overlay of the raster layers. The results show that the susceptibility is the highest in the low part of the valley, south of Kresna. The susceptibility of flooding is not equal over the whole area of the floodplain but depends on the retention capacity of the alluvial deposits and the hydro-geomorphological state of the floodplain. The river bank height above the water level and the river bed type are also taken into consideration by application of fuzzy logic. Using the fuzzy logic minimizes some imperfections of the initial data and gives good results in data-scarce areas. The fuzzy logic model is designed as a two-level hierarchical system with three inputs and one output. The output gives the complex assessment for geological-geomorphological flood susceptibility of study area regarding the interaction of the three inputs. The results of the current research aims to direct the attention of planning experts and decision-makers to the importance of geological-geomorphological parameters in flood management and can be considered as a first step of flood hazard assessment.
Valentina Nikolova, Plamena Zlateva, Ivan Dimitrov
Real-Time Tornado Forecasting Using SLHGN
Abstract
The architecture of mHGN has been improved and become Single Layer Hierarchical Graph Neuron (SLHGN). The speed of this new architecture for recognizing multidimensional patterns is faster than the one of mHGN. It is therefore more suitable for forecasting multidimensional and complex process of tornado’s genesis in real-time. Additionally, two important issues related to data handlings of non-accurate recorded data and data handlings of complex weather data have been solved. These improvements have given significant and positive quality of SLHGN in forecasting tornado. Although the accuracy and the forecasting performance cannot be calculated properly, due to the fact that weather data is not always available, the specific characteristics of the SLHGN experiment results show very promising values. This results suggest that tornado can be forecasted at least 5 h before it occurs. People in the to-be-hit area will then have adequate time to be evacuated or to escape. The deployment of SLHGN in risky areas of tornados can then be expected as a tool for reducing damages, losses, and costs. Several improvements in weather station distribution still need to be carried out in order to improve the quality of tornado forecasting using SLHGN.
Benny Benyamin Nasution, Rahmat Widia Sembiring, Muhammad Syahruddin, Nursiah Mustari, Abdul Rahman Dalimunthe, Nisfan Bahri, Berta br Ginting, Zulkifli Lubis
Universally Designed Beacon-Assisted Indoor Navigation for Emergency Evacuations
Abstract
The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) obligates national governments to ensure the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in emergency situations. This article examines the application and accessibility of state-of-the-art ICT solutions in emergency situations. Research has indeed shown that the design and implementation of evacuation procedures in emergency situations play a critical role in ensuring personal safety and protection. While research has examined the experiences of persons including persons with disabilities in emergency situations, research has yet to examine fully the role that cutting-edge indoor navigation solutions including, for example, Internet of Things (IoT), mobile device and big data analytics hardware and software, in simultaneously ensuring the safety and protection of persons with disabilities and everyone from a universal design perspective. Emerging research on IoT indoor navigation solutions has shown that networks of low-energy Bluetooth (BLE) beacons paired with a mobile application provide a usable wayfinding solution for persons with disabilities in laboratory and controlled experimental settings. This article fills this gap by asking “To what extent can BLE networks ensure the safety and protection of persons with disabilities and everyone in simulated emergency situations? Data from a multimethod study of user experience in emergency evacuations shows that BLE beacon networks could provide a more accessible user experience for persons with disabilities and everyone to evacuate indoor environments during emergency situations.
G. Anthony Giannoumis, Terje Gjøsæter, Jaziar Radianti, Cristina Paupini
Micro Failure Region Models Inducing Massive Correlated Failures on Networks Topologies
Abstract
Natural disasters, depending on both how many occur concurrently and their size, may produce large-scale correlated failures in data network infrastructure. These failures may cause service interruptions due to disconnections of nodes in the network. Proper fault modeling is crucial to calculate network damage, determine which data paths will remain active between a pair of nodes, and thus maintain a resilient network. While in the literature different sizes of circular shapes are used to model fault regions, in this work a new fault model is proposed. The model adjusts to the granularity level established by the network opera- tor to define the size and number of concurrent fault regions. Equipped with the failure model, it is possible to observe, through disjoint paths problem, the advantages of using micro failure region models to mitigate false positive failures associated when macro failure region is used.
Nicolás A. Boettcher, Yasmany Prieto, Jorge E. Pezoa
Tweeting About Floods of Messinia (Greece, September 2016) - Towards a Credible Methodology for Disaster Management Purposes
Abstract
As repeatedly stated by many researchers, the phenomenon of volunteered geographic information (VGI) is an important new technological tool that can contribute to disaster management (DM). Specifically regarding floods, despite that there is very interesting published research work that assesses VGI and flood event management in various areas of the world, related research in Greece, is still limited. Moreover, the necessity of creating meaningful maps and graphs is still a significant challenge globally, along with the general need to reduce the time needed for data processing. Current research presents steps towards those issues, by advancing various innovative initial methods and techniques that have been presented previously. The floods of Kalamata, Messinia (Greece, September 2016) were selected for case study, while as a VGI source, a corpus of 111000 tweets, published within 120 h since the flood event occurrence, was used. As far as the methodology is concerned, the main steps, included: a. the classification of the tweets in categories, the main of which were: (i) flood tracking, (ii) tracking of consequences, (iii) simple identification of rain and (iv) irony/emotions. The next step was related to geo-referencing the classified information, by using an R script, while the final steps were linked to generating maps and graphs, from subsets of the processed data. The outcome of this research is based on the analysis of about 45% of the total dataset.
Stathis G. Arapostathis
Organizational Features in Disaster Risk Management Systems
Abstract
In recent years, the fields of humanitarian logistics and attention to natural disasters have been focused on identifying the needs of the communities that go through some type of crisis, with the purpose of optimizing mitigation, prevention and response to emergencies processes. Today, problems have become more frequent and devastating; globalization, environmental damage and climate change have made our planet vulnerable. The social, economic and even political impact that have generated these events, has placed them in the crosshairs of governs. This article aims to conduct a systematic review of the literature about systems that address natural disasters and emergencies; its structures and structural features that characterize them. The structure includes, but is not limited to aspects such as the distribution of information, interaction patterns between the parties, the roles played by team members, among others. In this way we seek to highlight how the decision-making processes are carried out, and how these factors affect the outcome of the emergency. As a research proposal in the first part, the review process carried out and the definition of important terms are described. Then, some cases of emergency care are identified and selected, in which the stages from the declaration of the emergency to the results obtained can be recognized and the definition of four common structural elements in each situation can be defined: coordination mechanisms; information flows; structural flexibility; and roles and authority within the organization.
Yury Alejandra Castillo Manyoma, Nicolas Daniel Gómez Reyes, Luz Esperanza Bohorquez
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Information Technology in Disaster Risk Reduction
Editors
Yuko Murayama
Prof. Dr. Dimiter Velev
Plamena Zlateva
Copyright Year
2019
Electronic ISBN
978-3-030-32169-7
Print ISBN
978-3-030-32168-0
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32169-7

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