ICT in Disaster Management Initiatives in Asia-Pacific

Transcription

1 ICT in Disaster Management Initiatives in Asia-Pacific Workshop on ICT for Promoting Inclusive and Disaster Resilient Development Mai 2015, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Christian Wilk metacognition consulting, General Manager

2 Key Findings & Main Conclusions ICTs in DRR and Disaster Management until recently: GIS and geospatial information and knowledge management Analysis of remote sensed (mostly space-based) imagery and data Information management to coordinate people & resources Innovative Applications: ICT for Education & Training Virtual Reality; Games: Thailand (UNESCO) UAVs (Humanitarian Drones) in disaster management Nepal (2015), Vanuatu (2015), Philippines (2013), Thailand (2011), China Crowdsourcing of social media and Internet data Nepal (2015), Vanuatu (2015), Philippines Disaster Robotics on the rise Japan (2011): as conduits & for exploration

3 ICT in Disaster Management: 4 Phases Mitigation: Minimizing the effects of disaster Examples: building codes and zoning, vulnerability analyses, public education Preparedness: Planning how to respond Examples: preparedness plans, emergency exercises and training, early warning systems Response: Efforts to minimize the hazards created by a disaster Examples: search and rescue (robotics), crisis mapping, information management Recovery: Returning the community to normal state Examples: temporary housing (rapid prototyping technologies); grants; medical care

4 ICT in Disaster Management: Main categories ICT Infrastructure: Augment or replace damaged main communication infrastructure Examples: mobile, deployable units; TVWS (TV White Space), satellites Information management Examples: Sahana, Ushahidi, ArcGIS, Humanitarian ID Remote Sensing & geospatial information Examples: Satellite based, Drones, Philippine DOST s NOAH project Data analysis using social media and crowdsourcing approaches Disaster Robotics and Rapid Prototyping

5 Crowdsourcing & Social Media 1: Overview What Community generated data, exchanged on the Internet in online social communities as pictures, messages and tweets can provide critical information for crisis mapping and situational awareness building through the analysis of such crowdsourced data Why During a disaster, the affected community, response agencies and governments must all quickly understand who is in need, where they are, what is needed, which agencies can supply the demand, safe routes, distribution and medical centers etc. Crowdsourcing constitutes a quick, efficient, cost-effective and high-quality solution to this problem Who Digital Humanitarian Network DHN Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team HOT The Standby Task Force SBTF The International Network of Crisis Mappers

6 Crowdsourcing & Social Media 2: Use Cases Nepal 2015 Main objective is to crowdsource the analysis of tweets and media to rapidly assess disaster damage and needs Philippines 2012 and 2013 In 2012, in response to typhoon Pablo, the first time a map entirely sourced from social media analysis was generated. Within 10 hours more than tweets were analyzed.

7 Crowdsourcing & Social Media 3: Lessons Learned Lessons Learned - Crowdsourced results (categorized messages/ tweets/ pictures; maps) can be delivered within hours after the event of a disaster - Issues of reliability and quality can be addressed by having multiple volunteers look at the same data - Effective management of large numbers of volunteers has become a problem itself, but tools to support this have been or are currently developed - Crowdsourcing in disaster response is still in its early stages, therefore much remains to be learned, for instance better integration into established disaster response mechanisms - Inclusion of local community and diaspora abroad increases the quality of the output Outlook - Still labour-intensive, requiring a lot of manual input shift to semi-automatic support using AI techniques such as machine learning/ classification - Transition from crowdsourced text and image data to other data formats such as 3D, topographical data in combination with UAVs

8 UAVs 1: Overview What Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) have been increasingly used for crisis mapping during disaster response as a replacement for traditional aerial imagery collected by planes, helicopters or satellites. Why UAVs offer a couple of advantages for localized aerial imagery collection or sensing: quickly deployable, high-resolution sensors, efficient and cost-effective Who UAViators Drone Adventures

9 UAVs 2: Use Cases Nepal 2015 Vanuatu 2015 Philippines

10 UAVs 3: Lessons Learned Lessons Learned - The biggest challenge remain legal and regulatory provisions (air space, liability, im-/export). - Good practices and lessons learned need to be collected, consolidated and shared - Clear guidelines and a generally accepted code of conduct is needed - Open issues that need further attention: quality control of UAV pilots, privacy and data protection of collected data - Engaging local communities on the use and purpose of UAV missioins is paramount. UAVs and drones are generally associated with military and surveillance applications. Outlook - Interest is growing in using UAVs (equipped with infrared cameras) for search & rescue - Cooperation and coordination among a group of UAVs will be possible - Delivery drones for the supply of medicals and other urgent materials will be the next step

11 Disaster Robotics 1: Overview What Rescue robots are tactical, organic, unmanned systems that allow emergency professionals to perceive and act at a distance in real time, also known as having a remote presence at the disaster site. Why Robots make it possible to enter and explore areas that are prohibitive for humans or other living beings such as search and rescue dogs. Robots can also carry out important indirect tasks such as acting as a mobile radio beacon or repeater, serving as a surrogate team member, or shoring a collapse to make it safer for responders. Who Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR) International Rescue System Institute (IRS)

12 Disaster Robotics 2: Use Cases Japan 2011 Use Case During the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster in 2011, Japanese rescue robots were used at actual disaster sites for the first time. They were used and tested mainly along the coastline and at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) to inspect critical infrastructures, to search for missing persons driven underwater by the tsunami, to remove debris in the disaster sites, and to inspect buildings that were in danger of collapsing. Lessons learned - There was a lack of usable and ready to be deployed robots. - The biggest issue with disaster robotics and most often cited reason for mission failure were human interface issues. - PPP are particularly important Outlook - Disaster robotics has high theoretical potential, but their use is currently limited by technical limitations, which as other areas like UAVs have shown will be overcome

13 Recommendations ICT Infrastructure Paramount importance remains a functioning, reliable ICT network infrastructure Awareness raising, Know-how & Technology Transfer Actively promote and raise awareness of open-source and freely available ICT solutions in disaster management Streamlined & harmonized regulations & legal provisions Develop recommendations for legal and regulatory provisions for the use of automated platforms like UAVs and disaster robotics Regional R&D support Provide support for regional R&D projects and initiatives (financial, organisational, awareness) Exchange of Best Practices & Lessons learned Collect, consolidate and share best practices and lessons learned among countries and stakeholders

14 Thank you!