"There are end-to-end solutions for the effective, efficient and transparent implementation of DRR programs on a local, national and even regional scale."
"There are end-to-end solutions for the effective, efficient and transparent implementation of DRR programs on a local, national and even regional scale."In one day, the sudden eruption of Taal volcano last Sunday disrupted the lives of millions of Filipinos in the Southern Tagalog provinces, the National Capital Region, with volcanic ash fallout even reaching Northern Luzon. As of this writing the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology under the Department of Science and Technology maintains its Alert level 4 warning of an imminent hazardous eruption.
Perhaps the happy memories of generations of Filipinos who have enjoyed many scenic trips to Tagaytay and the tourist attractions all-around the towns of Taal Lake is raising nationwide sympathy and boosting a rare sense of unity to help the relief efforts for thousands of families in hundreds of evacuation areas.
The fast deterioration from the volcano’s benign alert status 2 to its violent awakening has shocked even scientists and volcanologist worldwide and exposed our vulnerability. As one of the world’s high-risk countries for natural disasters such as extreme weather from typhoons, El Niño, climate change, tectonic and volcanic earthquakes, and 22 active volcanoes, our capacity to prepare and mitigate the human and economic risks should be a top-of-mind concern of the national and local government.
The fast innovations in convergent Information and Communications Technologies have developed end-to-end solutions for the effective, efficient and transparent implementation of Disaster Risk Reduction programs on a local, national and even regional scale.
Casualties from floods, landslides and earthquakes can be greatly minimized local governments can strictly ban the habitation of “Danger Zones” that have been identified by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Investing in high resolution Geological Information System mapping technologies and sharing regularly updated data with all Local Government Units will enable constant monitoring and become basis for planning and executing relocation programs.
An October 2019 report of the World Bank Global Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery cites how Japan, our neighbor in the “Pacific Rim of Fire” and likewise often hit by typhoons (many from the Philippine area of responsibility), deploys its Early Warning System to enable citizens, government agencies and businesses to take pre-emptive action on hazardous events.
They have a well-developed integration of 3 ICT systems: The Earthquake Early Warning System immediately processes an earthquake’s hypocenter, magnitude and intensity and issues warnings seconds before an earthquake strikes and transmits warnings via their J-ALERT, a Nationwide instantaneous warning system and the Emergency Alert Mail—a cell broadcast early warning system to trigger immediate action to all affected individuals and critical infrastructure such as high speed rail systems and power plants.
Important elements of Japan’s EEWS that we can apply in developing our own warning ecosystem are: compatibility with local ICT context, redundancy, interoperability, periodic education and training at all levels for fast and effective response to alert levels, multi-functional or useful even when there are no disasters.
The report also discusses how Japan’s Disaster Information Management Systems effectively manages and processes big data and shares information needed for disaster response and recovery. The following are key insights in the report that were found critical in effective disaster management operations:
Well defined roles, responsibilities and procedures in the implementation of Standard Operating Procedures at multiple levels of government and relevant organizations.
Pre-disaster outreach and engagement with the system in order to familiarize with it increase the use and effectiveness of DIMS during a disaster.
DIMS are more effective and affordable when they are based upon existing communication infrastructure and user contexts.
The first alerts that I received about Sunday’s Taal eruption was from my messenger app as many of my friends started posting at-the-moment “ATM” accounts and photos. This then prompted me to check my newsfeed to verify with what the news networks were reporting. Social media have become the default communications medium of Filipinos who account for over 70-million Facebook users.
This huge influx of information updated in real time is seen by Artificial Intelligence developers as a potential resource for big data that can be analyzed for disaster prediction and response. The idea is to organize all existing data sets such as population, GIS, buildings (compliance to building codes), hazard zones, historical weather and earthquake data … etc., with information being gathered “live” as an event happens or posted in social media platforms.
Prompted by consecutive extreme weather hits, earthquakes and the ongoing major eruption affecting the most productive regions of the country, Congress has prioritized the passage of the Department of Disaster Resilience bill envisioned to be mandated to oversee, coordinate and implement a comprehensive disaster risk and vulnerability reduction and management program. P221.48-million capital outlays were also allocated in Phivolcs’ 2020 budget to upgrade monitoring and warning systems.
As we continue to develop the country’s digital infrastructure, government should tap a ready resource of best practices and experts from the highly regulated industries such as mining, power and energy, infrastructure and public utilities. These enterprises cannot operate without being compliant to the high safety and environmental standards in their mandate. We now see these companies mobilizing their resources and man-power to complement the government’s Taal relief and recovery efforts effectively expanding impact to thousands of families.
In the paper, “Disruptive technologies and their use in disaster risk reduction and management” by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union published in March 2019, “The rapid spread of supporting digital infrastructure and devices, especially wireless broadband networks, smartphones and cloud computing, has created the foundation for the application of disruptive technologies for disaster management. Disruptive technologies can spread critical information more quickly, improve understanding of the causes of disasters, enhance early warning systems, assess damage in new ways and add to the knowledge base of the social behaviors and economic impacts after a crisis strikes.”
