Use of technology for emergency response

Minutes after the February 22, 2011, earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, our power lines and water supply stopped working. For those with a battery-operated radio, news of the unfolding disaster was still available, minus images on television. Others like me, with an MP3 player that could also get on radio, were limited by the battery-life of the player itself. Most emergency lines were jammed for the first few hours following the disaster as people came to terms with what had happened, the news spread and calls poured in to establish the safety of loved ones.

In the week following February 22, we were stranded in Christchurch with dying cell-phones and no access to basic human necessities, including water and sewage. Information about the location of hot food, portable toilets, drinking water, first-aid services and medical supplies was not spreading quickly enough to reach us, as we were living in one of the worst-hit suburbs in the city. Calling emergency services, the power company, the Red Cross and other groups with toll-free lines led to massive confusion on when they expected the services to be up. The law and order situation was one of concern to us, being foreigners, trapped in a dark house, with cumulative loss of sleep when most neighbours had left to be with friends in safer places.

Through the whole time, what struck me as most odd was that not one mass-SMS was sent to inform citizens about where they could access resources. The use of technology in times of disaster can be very crucial, especially when considering human density in places such as India where the loss of life in natural disasters is huge. I had been through one other emergency such as this one, when I was a graduate student during the twin tower bombings on September 11, 2001. I was at college in Raleigh, North Carolina, which was a good ten-hour drive from New York. However, the memories of that night, with parents of many friends calling me from India, when they couldn't reach their children, will never leave me. In terms of co-location, for the parents of my friends in India, I was the closest to the emergency.

Proactive crowdsourcing

Both natural disasters and emergencies, especially ones that lead to massive loss of life, bear inspection in terms of how to utilise technology to mitigate some portions of the anxiety and uncertainty that follow such an occurrence. In this article, I explore an idea from my dissertation titled Proactive Crowdsourcing which proposes Location-Based Services in non-commercial spheres such as Emergency Response.

Most proposals for managing emergencies, except in the areas of surveillance, are reactive in nature. This curbs their effectiveness by several orders of magnitude. In the case of emergency management, the need of the hour is to enable more proactive solutions. Crowdsourcing is a term used to describe de-centralising operations and trusting the work to the co-ordinated actions of a crowd. Instead of an Emergency Services provider waiting until the emergency has occurred, assessing the nature of the problem and then deploying resources, if they could instead rely on citizens co-located with the emergency, the management of the emergency would become more agile and effective. Users co-located with the emergency are, arguably, the best sources of information on what might be needed to mitigate the effects.

Sometimes, the requirements are not intuitive and no amount of surveillance or pre and post-op training can predict the needs of the people affected by the disaster. For example, in the case of Hurricane Katrina, one of the biggest requirements that the responders fell short of was ice! Enhanced 911 (or E-911) was proposed in order to link people at the time of an emergency to critical resources. Reverse 911 is another example of a public safety communications system that was built to communicate with people within certain geographies where a database of phone numbers and associated addresses are used to identify citizens co-located with emergencies. Both E-911 and Reverse 911 fall in the category of reactive systems or approaches to the problem. In the case of Reverse 911, the biggest barrier to effectiveness is that in case of a fire in San Diego, locating all households in San Diego en masse may not be the most efficient action plan. There might potentially be several people that have travelled to San Diego from surrounding areas or from afar and locating them is best achieved via a cell-phone, rather than fixed geographical and list-based approaches.

In the February 22, 2011, earthquake, on day two, some of our neighbours opened up well-water from their private wells for people to use for drinking (after boiling) or doing their washing. This was a very localised service and there was no way to intimate people. Word-of-mouth did the job in this case and these wells proved to be invaluable in the emergency, especially from the perspective of elderly citizens and people with children, who couldn't go very far to fetch water and had no information on when the water trucks would reach their neighbourhoods. In this case, Proactive Crowdsourcing might have involved Civil Defence deploying a small team of information specialists in conjunction with the Telecom companies to accept news from locals who were offering up well-water and re-sending the same as a mass SMS to citizens in the area who wanted to avail the service.

This is just one of many examples for, as the days went on (we stayed in Christchurch for six days after the emergency), it was pretty much down to neighbour helping neighbour with everything, from well water to cooking gas to barbeque ranges to short-term generators or rides for free food that was being offered by local churches. Two Web sites came into play on days 5 and 6 following the earthquake, which monitored the location of twitter messages within Christchurch and tracked the locations of the aftershocks. The Internet, while a great source of information, is limited to people with powerful/smart phones that are browser-enabled, which are often not the most ubiquitous models to program for.

Watch out for unruly elements

One of the most obvious problems that arise from allowing citizens to send messages are the unruly elements, who impersonate or send wrong information out. There were many cases reported of people impersonating earthquake victims and Urban Search and Rescue officials, amongst many others. With SMS-es that citizens send to disseminate information about local services, one intuitive way to verify authenticity would be to match the location from which the SMS is sent to the location that the registered phone user (provided they consent to this) might have in the provider's address database. The other method would be to build a reputation vector around the person that is sending the message, either by checking their immediate social network (to establish cranks with brand new phones) or by polling for more information for identification and verification by Civil Defence to establish the authenticity of the sender and then send mass SMS-es to other people in the vicinity.

The first responders during the Latur (Maharashtra) quake were Amateur Radio Operators from Mumbai and Hyderabad, which is a great example of an ad hoc network which starts with information from local citizens. In this context, there is a prevalence of language barriers and low-cost handsets which are more popular. It is unlikely that in India, people would flick on their iPhones and send Twitter messages in the case of a large-scale disaster or even that those that did would represent the majority demographic affected by it. India has one of the best coverage numbers when it comes to cell-phone usage. The use of low-cost, non-GPS enabled handsets, however, means that it would be up to the Telecom Services Providers to enable one or more services that utilise proactive Crowdsourcing, as they have the most information about the location of callers with respect to cell-sites which they have installed.

The notion of Crowdsourcing can also extend to other aspects of emergency management. Consider a situation where two adjoining counties (or administrative domains) are involved in an emergency. To best handle the situation, it might be beneficial for the two counties to work in tandem to share their pool of resources and allocate resources based on the shortest path to the site rather than dealing with bureaucratic limitations. This is particularly important when local citizen groups (such as neighbourhood watch patrols) have to communicate to pool resources.

In the time we had to understand the magnitude of what happened on February 22, 2011, and grasp how the situation might unfold and make decisions about our own personal safety, the most helpful thing in the first 36 hours would probably have been an SMS, as all other modes of communication were down. Proper laws and regulations to seek cell-phone subscribers' consent to contacting them at the time of an emergency and ensuring that any state or private organisation does not compromise a citizen's long-term safety would also be paramount to enabling such ideas.

The author is founder of PatNMarks, an intellectual property consulting firm, and a faculty member in Computer Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology.

Mining, deforestation cause severe drought in Jharkhand

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Media Reports:Tap Indias Space Tech to Solve Natural Disasters

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This monsoon, MMS alerts to warn of disaster

This monsoon, MMS alerts to warn of disaster
Published: Monday, Feb 28, 2011, 1:37 IST
By Priyanka Sharma | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

The civic body will go high-tech to avert any disaster this monsoon and avoid all forms of miscommunication.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will send MMS alerts to citizens to spread awareness on flood-like situations and water-logged roads. In a bid to leverage the message’s reachability and enhance the communication system, the BMC will explore the third generation(3G) technology.
The Bombay high court had earlier criticised the role of TV channels in airing old pictures and videos during monsoon, which propagate incorrect information and create panic among people. Civic officials claimed that the MMS alerts sent to citizens will aim at eradicating all such possibilities.

SS Shinde, joint municipal commissioner (disaster) said the custom method needs to be modernised to efficiently manage any disaster during monsoon. “The civic body will collaborate with the telecom service providers in the city for this enhanced service. The aim is to boost the information circuit and create awareness among the citizens at the earliest,” Shinde said.

BMC officials added that the purpose of effective communication is rarely met through bulk SMS alerts. “SMS alerts to around one lakh people take over 12 hours. The new method will be quicker and more citizen-friendly,” said a senior BMC official.

BMC is working on improvising the system of custom bulk SMS alerts. Shinde said that they are working on sending lakhs of text messages in a span of half an hour through usage of optical fibres. The BMC’s disaster cell currently relies on hotlines and HAM system to communicate.

Also, language is too a hitch, said the official. Along with English, the civic body will be sending the alerts in Hindi and Marathi. Due to the speed constraints and language, usage of 3G technology is will be adopted.

Implementing 3G will boost the rate at which the information is provided to the people, the official added.

Through the motion pictures, it will be easier for citizens to gauge the gravity of the situation themselves, the official said. The BMC is, meanwhile, finalising the monetary feasibility for the scheme. The MMS will also provide information on traffic jams, tidal information and rainfall intensity. Along with this, the information will be forwarded to the police control room.

However, BMC’s concern is the effective implementation of the service. “Not all citizens have cell phones which are capable of reading messages sent through MMS. Thus, its reliability will not be complete,” added Shinde.





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Get toilet,solar light free if you build houses in 6 months:World Bank Offer To Kosi Flood Beneficiaries

Santosh Singh
The Indian Express Group

The World Bank has offered to Kosi flood relief beneficiaries an incentive that is expected to put the reconstruction process on fast track: rebuild your houses in six months and get toilets and solar lights worth Rs 7,300 free of cost.





The offer stands for 1,00,00 beneficiaries under the $259 million Bihar Kosi Recovery Project started in collaboration with Bihar government recently. World Bank president Robert B Zoellick was in Patna last month to sign the agreement with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Bihar’s share in the project is $39 million.



Over 30,000 people have already got Rs 30,000 each as first installment in their bank accounts. The second installment of Rs 20,000 each will be released after construction is completed till lintel level.



A house owner, though free to engage mason and workers of his choice, will have to build the house on at least 215 sqft area under the project.


As the house model is designed by disaster management experts who have worked in Bhuj and tsunami reconstruction, the owner has to choose from three models — bamboo wall with an attic, brick wall with an attic and brick wall with Reinforced Concrete Construction roof. A owner must avoid using jute, iron wires or nylon to tie knots but has to use zippers that can last 25 years. Only three-year-old bamboo can be used for such houses.



Non-compliance of the World Bank specifications would mean disqualification for incentives or even withholding of the second installment.



State coordinator with Owner Driven Reconstruction Collaborative, a network of reconstruction agencies helping the government in the Kosi project, Sanjay Pandey, told The Indian Express: “Each house will get Rs 2,300 for a toilet and Rs 5,000 for solar lighting only if the house is constructed within six months as per our specifications. Masons, social workers and engineers will also get incentives for house construction within six months.”



Pandey said while the toilet and solar lighting incentives have got listed beneficiaries from Madhepura, Supaul and Saharasa scramble at respective block offices to complete formalities, there is a sense of urgency among engineers, masons and social workers too.



An engineer can get Rs 100 per house incentive for a maximum 1,000 houses. A mason, who will supervise the construction, will get Rs 150 per house for maximum 100 houses and a social worker can get Rs 50 for maximum 500 houses construction within six months.



Pandey said over 50 per cent of the 100,000 beneficiaries were from below the poverty line. Madhepura district where 11 of 13 blocks were flooded in 2008 has maximum number of beneficiaries. Besides housing, 90 bridges and 290 km of rural roads would also be constructed under the project.



Source :- http://www.indianexpress.com


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India for regional cooperation to tackle natural disasters

Colombo, (PTI) : India said it supports initiatives to facilitate regional cooperation in confronting the challenges posed by natural disasters.

"The South Asia Region in particular, is extremely vulnerable to these natural calamities which have frequently struck our region with ferocity. The loss in terms of lives and assets and deprivation and dislocation suffered by the people is enormous," Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar Kumar said.

Kumar was speaking at the opening session of the 3rd Asian regional conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) here.

The conference, which was opened by the Sri Lankan Prime Minister D M Jayaratne, aims to discuss issues on "Climate Change and Natural Disasters", "Poverty Alleviation" and "Mother and Child" which have been identified as top priority issues of the region.

"India whole-heartedly supports initiatives to facilitate regional cooperation in confronting the challenges posed by natural disasters and we are ever keen to share our expertise and experience in the field with our neighbours," Kumar said, referring to SAARC Disaster Management Centre established in New Delhi 2006.

She said that periodic exchanges of views among parliamentarians facilitate closer scrutiny of political, social and cultural issues.

Kumar said "we stand ready to provide whatever additional assistance is required", referring to devastation caused in floods in Sri Lanka twice within a month which affected more than one million persons on both occasions respectively.

India was one of the first countries to respond to Sri Lanka''s call for assistance in early January when the first wave of floods hit the eastern province of the country.

On poverty alleviation, she said that the "poverty is the most daunting challenge facing us today".

The overall achievements towards poverty eradication have been slow and uneven despite global commitments to reduce the poverty, she said.

Speaking on the other major issue addressed by the conference, "Mother and Child" , Kumar said that "between now and 2015, we will provide technical assistance to other countries, share our experience and will support the creation of a platform for global knowledge management to oversee the dissemination of best practices."
India is committed to spending over USD 3.5 billion each year on health services especially those aimed at women''s and children''s health.

Source :- http://news.in.msn.com


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Food security and livelihoods hit in flood-affected east SriLanka

Food security and livelihoods hit in flood-affected east SriLanka : Media Reports



Food security and livelihoods have been severely hit in Sri Lanka, specialists say, after heavy rains caused widespreadflooding and drove hundreds of thousands from their homes, left 43 people dead, and damaged or destroyed close to 30,000 homes.

According to the UN, agricultural production is the main source of livelihood in the affected area and this season's rice harvest has been badly damaged, leading to increased food insecurity.

The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates about 500,000 residents are food-insecure.

In the worst affected districts of Ampara, Batticaloa, and Trincomalee in Eastern Province, heavy rains between 8 and 12 January left more than 101,171 hectares of paddy fields damaged, of which more than 81,000ha suffered moderate to severe damage, initial estimates suggest.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates a loss of about 450,000 tons or US$120 million.

"The potential loss has been calculated to be in the region of 15.5 percent," Calvin Piggott, FAO's senior northern recovery coordinator in Sri Lanka, told IRIN.

The flooding, some of the worst in 100 years, came just two months before fields were to be harvested for the Maha - the principal growing season in the island nation. More than 607,000ha are cultivated during this time, with over one-fifth of that in the four districts hit by the floods.

Fields destroyed

In some towns such as Manampitiya, along the border between Polonnaruwa and Batticaloa districts, hundreds of hectares were affected.

Here, water hyacinth - regarded as the world's worst water weed - was washed into the fields with the flood waters, covering 81ha of paddy land in one stretch, Manhina Banda, the government agriculture officer for the area, said.

"You can't do anything but wait for the weed to die. Taking it out will be a colossal expenditure," he said.

Elsewhere, when the paddy was under water for two to three days, the harvest was either destroyed or will be woefully low.

"The paddy can look fine, but if it was under water for over a day there will be no harvest," farmer Sarath Weerasinghe from Kirimitiya, an interior village in the Polonnaruwa district, explained.

Weerasinghe is typical of many small-time paddy cultivators in Sri Lanka who depend on rice as their primary source of income. He cultivated 1.2ha, spending around $600 per 0.4ha, and hoped to make about $1,000 per 0.4ha from the harvest.

Weerasinghe financed the cultivation from a small loan obtained from a local businessman. He has no insurance and no way of recouping his losses unless he receives direct assistance.

Livestock losses

But rice farmers are not the only ones reeling; other small crops have suffered losses, though estimates have yet to be finalized.

"There will be multiple effects felt right across the country," Seenithamby Manoharan, a senior rural development specialist with the World Bank Sri Lanka office, told IRIN, warning that in addition to the losses suffered by farmers, there were likely to be price rises when the harvest fell short of expectations.

Since the rains began at the end of 2010, the Economic Centre in central Dambulla, the country's main bulk vegetable distribution centre, has recorded price increases of more than 80 percent, the UN said.

Another area of heavy losses is likely to be livestock. In Verugal, a village in the Trincomalee District with 12,000 people, the loss of livestock was over 10,000, Ponnambalam Thanesveran, the divisional secretary for the village, said. So far no figures have been established for the total loss of livestock due to the flooding.

The FAO is conducting a detailed study of the flood damage, Piggott said, with initial assistance likely to begin in the next three weeks targeting the most vulnerable.

The government has held talks with the World Bank on how to assist the famers, but so far there has been no concrete assistance targeting the destroyed crops or livestock. In most areas, local officials were gathering information last week to be sent to government authorities in the capital Colombo.

"Something has to be done fast, some of these people have lost their only means of income," Thanesveran said.

On 20 January, the UN and its partners launched a $51 million appeal to assist more than one million people over the next six months. Of this, $22 million is designated for food security, agriculture and livelihoods.

The appeal is expected to be revised within the next month to reflect needs as the situation changes and assessments are made available.



Source : http://www.irinnews.org


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