Data Integration for Thailand Disaster Risk and Response Management System L. Kovavisaruch 1 , P. Kamolvej 2 , G. Prommoon 2 , N. Iamrahong 2 1 NETEC, NSTDA, Pathumthani Thailand 2 Department of computer Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok Thailand Abstract-The paper presents a computerized application on disaster warning in Thailand, developed in support by the National Disaster Warning Center. The system is an effort in Thailand to integrate disaster related information through a centralized information hub to increase disaster warning accuracy and speed. The system currently supports five disaster types: earthquake, tsunami, flashflood and mudslide, weather storm and major flood. Two main functions of the application is reviewed, the web service approach on integrating data from twelve source agencies and the decision support system for listed experts to review specific case and make informed warning announcements. The effort on this application is an ongoing project, projecting to expand integration to more agencies and supporting more disaster types as well as increasing the universality of the web service compatibility. I. INTRODUCTION In view of Thailand’s past 10 years, it has faced its fair share of disasters. It was especially hard on year 2004 where two disaster stuck in the form of the H5N1 (bird flu) outbreak that swept across the region in the beginning of the year and a tsunami that result from an earthquake with estimate magnitude of 9.0 at the end of the year. While the H5N1 pandemic threat resulted in few human casualties, its financial and social have changed the practices of poultry industry affecting farmers and consumers alike. The 2004 tsunami hit Thailand’s coast two hours after the original quake killing, injuring and displacing an estimate of 8000 person in Thailand for each category and totaling over 230,000 in death, 125,000 injured and over a million displaced worldwide. In 2011, another disaster hit Thailand. This one was different from the two previous major disasters in 2004 in that it was not a sudden, unexpected disaster. Seasonal flooding has been a part of Thailand for as long as the current generation has lived. The one that hit in 2011 was the worst in five decades and resulted in 45.7 billion dollars of economic damages and losses as of December 1, 2011. The National Disaster Warning Center, here in the Center, was established six months after the 2004 flood to a prepare and act as the national warning center for natural disaster and provide relevant and timely information to responding agencies as well as the general republic. Realizing that disaster assistance is now a national priority, it is set to be the center of information relating to natural disaster risk and management. Prepared for tsunami warnings with its own buoy in the west coast of Thailand and warning towers along the beaches, it was ill equipped to deal with the flooding that occurred in 2011. Realizing that the Center lacked resources to collect, aggregate and analyze primary data for all natural disaster in Thailand, a new model is needed for successful preparation and response for natural disasters in Thailand. Disasters all over cause more damage to the vulnerable geographic areas in Thailand as well as has the highest impact on vulnerable groups that needs assistant more quickly, such as women, children and those with disabilities and the elderly [1]. The new approach is to shift the role of the Center to be the decision making point that integrates data from existing government agencies that have the tools, knowledge and local personnel. The method, obstacles, limitations and future work for the application at the Center will be discussed in this paper. II. CONCEPTUAL APPROACH A. Objective As the focal point for national disaster related information and responsible agency for disseminating warning signals, the Center is to be involved in all types of disasters. There are four main types of disasters, natural disasters that include floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and volcano eruptions that can have immediate impacts on human health, as well as secondary impacts causing further death and suffering from floods causing landslides, earthquakes resulting in fires, tsunamis causing widespread flooding and typhoons sinking ferries, environmental emergencies that include technological or industrial accidents as well as large forest fires, complex emergencies that involve a break-down of authority, looting and attacks on strategic installations and lastly pandemic emergencies that involve a sudden onset of a contagious disease that affects health but also disrupts services and businesses, bringing economic and social costs. Thailand has recently experienced all four types of disasters, where the first and the last already mentioned and the second the form of hazards from various industrial estates that exists in Thailand and the third in the form of political crisis during 2008-2010 and ongoing insurgent activity in the Deep South. The current object for the Center, however, only handles the first type in natural disaster preparation and warning. It aims to increase effectiveness and efficiency in early warning systems, create reliable communication channels for all situations and improve access of information for all parties, public and private during an event of national disaster. B. Role In the disaster risk management cycle, there are four main stages of activity: prevention & mitigation, preparation, response and recovery [2] (Figure 1). 1239 2013 Proceedings of PICMET '13: Technology Management for Emerging Technologies.
Transcript
Data Integration for Thailand Disaster Risk and Response Management System
L. Kovavisaruch1, P. Kamolvej2, G. Prommoon2, N. Iamrahong2 1NETEC, NSTDA, Pathumthani Thailand
2Department of computer Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok Thailand
Abstract-The paper presents a computerized application on disaster warning in Thailand, developed in support by the National Disaster Warning Center. The system is an effort in Thailand to integrate disaster related information through a centralized information hub to increase disaster warning accuracy and speed. The system currently supports five disaster types: earthquake, tsunami, flashflood and mudslide, weather storm and major flood. Two main functions of the application is reviewed, the web service approach on integrating data from twelve source agencies and the decision support system for listed experts to review specific case and make informed warning announcements. The effort on this application is an ongoing project, projecting to expand integration to more agencies and supporting more disaster types as well as increasing the universality of the web service compatibility.
I. INTRODUCTION
In view of Thailand’s past 10 years, it has faced its fair
share of disasters. It was especially hard on year 2004 where two disaster stuck in the form of the H5N1 (bird flu) outbreak that swept across the region in the beginning of the year and a tsunami that result from an earthquake with estimate magnitude of 9.0 at the end of the year. While the H5N1 pandemic threat resulted in few human casualties, its financial and social have changed the practices of poultry industry affecting farmers and consumers alike. The 2004 tsunami hit Thailand’s coast two hours after the original quake killing, injuring and displacing an estimate of 8000 person in Thailand for each category and totaling over 230,000 in death, 125,000 injured and over a million displaced worldwide.
In 2011, another disaster hit Thailand. This one was different from the two previous major disasters in 2004 in that it was not a sudden, unexpected disaster. Seasonal flooding has been a part of Thailand for as long as the current generation has lived. The one that hit in 2011 was the worst in five decades and resulted in 45.7 billion dollars of economic damages and losses as of December 1, 2011.
The National Disaster Warning Center, here in the Center, was established six months after the 2004 flood to a prepare and act as the national warning center for natural disaster and provide relevant and timely information to responding agencies as well as the general republic. Realizing that disaster assistance is now a national priority, it is set to be the center of information relating to natural disaster risk and management. Prepared for tsunami warnings with its own buoy in the west coast of Thailand and warning towers along the beaches, it was ill equipped to deal with the flooding that occurred in 2011. Realizing that the Center lacked resources to collect, aggregate and analyze primary data for all natural
disaster in Thailand, a new model is needed for successful preparation and response for natural disasters in Thailand. Disasters all over cause more damage to the vulnerable geographic areas in Thailand as well as has the highest impact on vulnerable groups that needs assistant more quickly, such as women, children and those with disabilities and the elderly [1]. The new approach is to shift the role of the Center to be the decision making point that integrates data from existing government agencies that have the tools, knowledge and local personnel. The method, obstacles, limitations and future work for the application at the Center will be discussed in this paper.
II. CONCEPTUAL APPROACH A. Objective
As the focal point for national disaster related information and responsible agency for disseminating warning signals, the Center is to be involved in all types of disasters. There are four main types of disasters, natural disasters that include floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and volcano eruptions that can have immediate impacts on human health, as well as secondary impacts causing further death and suffering from floods causing landslides, earthquakes resulting in fires, tsunamis causing widespread flooding and typhoons sinking ferries, environmental emergencies that include technological or industrial accidents as well as large forest fires, complex emergencies that involve a break-down of authority, looting and attacks on strategic installations and lastly pandemic emergencies that involve a sudden onset of a contagious disease that affects health but also disrupts services and businesses, bringing economic and social costs.
Thailand has recently experienced all four types of disasters, where the first and the last already mentioned and the second the form of hazards from various industrial estates that exists in Thailand and the third in the form of political crisis during 2008-2010 and ongoing insurgent activity in the Deep South.
The current object for the Center, however, only handles the first type in natural disaster preparation and warning. It aims to increase effectiveness and efficiency in early warning systems, create reliable communication channels for all situations and improve access of information for all parties, public and private during an event of national disaster. B. Role
In the disaster risk management cycle, there are four main stages of activity: prevention & mitigation, preparation, response and recovery [2] (Figure 1).
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Figure 1: Depicting the disaster risk management cycle from flood
management practice in the EU, 2007
For the Center, its relevance will mainly be focused during preparation and response, especially in disseminating early warning signs during pre-impact activities and coordinating response effort during emergency management and operations. Its roles include short term activities before the event and after the event.
The prevention and mitigation and recovery part are responsible by other directly responsible government agencies, such as the Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Transport, and Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.
C. Approach
As an institution with limited resource in collecting, aggregating and analyzing raw environmental data, the Center cannot make an informed decision without coordinating with other agencies. One approach is to have each individual agency with relevant expertise manage and execute warning for their respective disaster. This, however, did not work as seen during the 2011 flooding crisis. The Department of Irrigation, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the Nautical Chart and Publication Services Hydrographic Department, and Thai Meteorological Department all reported their own warning and data. This lead to a mass confusion in the general public that resulted in indecision, people trapped in their homes and industrial sites failing to respond in due time.
The failure during the 2011 flood initiated a new method to focus all decision making and final data analyses into one institution. In this model, the Center will aggregate relevant data from primary agencies with existing tools and expertise through electronic data integration. The data from each agency is compared and contrasted to create useful information in disaster management perspective. The Center makes preliminary judgment from aggregate data and sends automatic recommendation to networked experts to review a case for early warning decisions. If there is sufficient case for a natural disaster, the Center then sends out warning messages to news agencies, national broadcasting stations, and local network authorities to be conveyed on a national scale. The messages are sent out through facsimile (fax), short message service (sms), and electronic messages (email). The flow of information is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Depicts the information flow from the primary institution, the center and the general public
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The system sends the information out in two parts, one through the web portal and one through automated warning messages to relevant parties. The information from the primary institution maybe categorized and formatted into a different view, but will not be changed in its primary content. Currently, the Center is linked with twelve agencies, including the Department of Mineral Resources, Department of High Ways, Department of Rural Roads, Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, Department of Medical Sciences, National Statistics Office, Thai Meteorological Department, Royal Irrigation Department, Nautical Chart and Publication Services Hydrographic Department, Hydro and Agro Informatics Institute and Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency.
III. APPLICATION
A. Assessment
Upon contacting with the twelve government agencies, preparation for the disaster management system can initiate. The model for the management system is geared towards community-based disaster management model as described by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in their Flash Flood Early Warning System Reference Guide [3]. Current government assistance in Thailand still rely on coordination with and between existing local community leaders and volunteer within the Department of Local Administration. The local units are used to be individual entities that have jurisdiction to act autonomously from the government officials from other central government ministries and departments at the provincial and district levels [4]. Fumio Nagai proposed the system needs to be viewed as a duel system of local administration and local government in Thailand [5]. Managing disaster warning and relief measures through this duel system of governance is difficult, if not impossible, without cooperation from both sides of the spectrum. Hence, the community-based disaster management model can help linked the central command to the local administrative organizations, focusing on relationships
necessary to develop, implement, and maintain and effective end-to-end early warning system [6].
The system overview in Figure 2 focuses on involvement from critical parties within the twelve government organizations. The two of the three ministries in Thailand that have network that penetrate to the local level, district level, at involved in the program, namely the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation under Ministry of Interior and the Department of Medical Sciences under the Ministry of Public Health. The two organization gives the system linkage to local volunteer network that is the current primary entity that handles emergency situation and the local hospital and health personnel for relief and recovery. The Royal Irrigation Department also deals extensively with the local farmers, but rely on the Department of Agricultural Extension offices for coordination. The remaining nine agencies act as data provider with their existing hardware installations of sensors and equipment as well as expert panels to provide analysis to the data. The role and existing attribute of the twelve agencies are described in Table 1.
Table 1 depicts the role and existing information attribute of the twelve participating government agencies. The roles are categorized according to Figure 1, the database attribute are offline and online, and the network attribute consist of district, provincial and national level with the national level having lowest penetration to the local administration organizations.
The application for the data integration for Thailand Disaster Risk and Response Management System currently focuses on five types of natural disasters that relate to Thailand’s geographical location, namely earthquakes, tsunami, flood, flash flood and mudslide and weather storms. The data linked from each government agencies are as follows.
Table 2 depicts the role and existing information attribute of the twelve participating government agencies. The roles are categorized according to Figure 1, the database attribute are offline and online, and the network attribute consist of district, provincial and national level with the national level having lowest penetration to the local administration organizations.
TABLE 1
Agency Role Database Network National Statistics Office Preparation Offline Provincial Department of Mineral Resources Preparation Offline Provincial Department of High Ways Response Offline Provincial Department of Rural Roads Response Offline Provincial Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand Preparation / Response Online District Thai Meteorological Department Preparation / Response Online Provincial Royal Irrigation Department Preparation / Response Online District Nautical Chart and Publication Services Hydrographic Department
Preparation / Response Offline Provincial
Hydro and Agro Informatics Institute and Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency
Response Online National
Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Response / Recovery Offline District Department of Medical Sciences Response / Recovery Offline District
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TABLE 2 Agency Data Structure National Statistics Office Population distribution and density Structured database Department of Mineral Resources Active fault line
Name and location of village at risk to flash flood and mudslide Geographical data of flash flood and mudslide area in Thailand
Flat File
Department of High Ways Active and Inactive highways during floods Flat File Department of Rural Roads Active and Inactive rural roads during floods Flat File Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand Dam water level
Royal Irrigation Department Rainfall level Dam water level River basin water level CCTV images of river water level
Relational DBMS
Nautical Chart and Publication Services Hydrographic Department
Earthquake detection Hardcopy
Hydro and Agro Informatics Institute and Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency
Rainfall level Dam water level
Relational DBMS
Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Tsunami warning siren Name and location of village at risk to tsunami impact
Desktop
Department of Medical Sciences Name and location of hospitals in the country Name and location of mobile medical relief units
Desktop
B. Integration
As seen in the assessment process, the current data within the organizations are different. Hence, the system needs to be able to accommodate integration of data from all the agencies once implemented. Due to some of the database being offline, direct linkage through web service application cannot be used
with all the agencies so the integration module also contain importation of data through flat file formats and file imports.
Figure 3 depicts the three integration technique applied to the system with the web service method for online relational database, flat file method for offline non-relational database and file import for offline non-relational database.
Figure 3.
Web Service Flat File File Import
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Linkage through the web service model will automatically pull disaster related data from the networked agency during a scheduled interval or manual trigger. Flat file method uses documents with comma separated values (CSV) format pulled from the networked agencies generated by the existing database. Lastly, the file import uses Microsoft Excel Documents formatted according to the standard database which can be directly imported into the database from the website. The networked agencies themselves chooses the appropriate method for their organization but all work towards linkage through the web service model. Currently, only two organizations can be linked through the web service model, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, Thai Meteorological Department and the Royal Irrigation Department. C. Design
As stated briefly stated in Figure 2, there are five primary users of the system. The system includes an end-to-end process from inputting data by networked agency, processing and analysing data by the Centre and expert panel and ultimately disseminating aggregated information back to the networked agency as well as disaster warning messages to the general public. The details for each user is as follows. • Networked Agencies - the organizations related to sharing
data to be used in the analytical process by the expert panel and personnel at the Centre as well as organizations that wish to benefit from the aggregated data and disaster warning messages.
• National Disaster Warning Center (Center or NDWC) – the organization responsible for maintaining the system from input, process and output data relating to disaster events, knowledge and situations on the website and web application. The Center is also responsible for Geographic Information System (GIS) service mapping for disaster related events.
• System Administrator – the administer is responsible for setting the primary attributes of the system including the integrative modules for sending and receive information,
usage privileges and the criteria for notifying the expert panels.
• Expert Panel – the experts are both academic experts and government personnel whom are experienced in disaster or risk management. They are responsible for helping to analyse data gathered by the system to make further informed decision to be broadcasted to the response and relief agency as well as the general public.
• General Public – the public can access disaster related information through the Center’s website where the system will display disaster warning messages as well as necessary actions and important location regarding the area in case of actual disaster event.
Figure 4 depicts the work flow for the data integration for
Thailand Disaster Risk and Response Management System. The system begins from collecting data from networked agencies and ending with disseminating disaster warning messages (if applicable) back to the networked agencies and the general public.
For the model of exchanging data between the Center and networked agencies, the exchange design is modelled off the EDXL-DE standard. The EDXL-DE is an XML-based standard set designed for emergency information sharing and data exchange [7]. As stated by Abbas Rajabifard in his development of spatial data structure to facilitate disaster management, the dynamic of a disaster event is very wide and no single agency can provide all the required information for each event [8]. The use of specific payload can help specify the role of each agency to quickly send vital information of their responsible payload.
Figure 5 shows the XML architecture for the application modelled from the EDXL-DE standard The design makes use of a common data set, consisting of the sender information as well as the geographical information of the event. The rest of the information about the actual data is included in the ‘payload’ of the xml message, where each type of disaster has its own standard developed during the application. The payload for each disaster type is displayed in Table 3.
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Data Integration for Thailand Disaster Risk and Response Management System
Network Agency NDWC Administrator Expert Panel General Public
Network Agency
Database
Data Integration
Disaster Related Data Manage Data Integration
Manage User Privilages
Manage Warning Criteria Verify Warning Criteria
Notify Expert Panel Confirm Data Source
Analyse and Report Disaster Warning
End of Analysis?
Forward Analysis
Conclude Analysis
Sends Warning Messages View Warning Messages from the Website
No Y
es
Manage Information Export
Figure 4.
Figure 5.
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TABLE 3. Disaster Type Data Data Presentation Sync Frequency
Flood Indicator Rainfall Level Table, Map Every 15 Minutes
Related Data Dam Water Level Table, Map Every 15 Minutes River Basin Water Level Table, Map Every 15 Minutes Water Level from CCTV Images Table, Map, Images Live Feed Contour Map Monthly Watergate, Dikes, Pumps and Tunnel Map Monthly
Earthquake Indicator Earthquake Detection Table, Map Every 15 Minutes Related Data Active Fault Line in Thailand Map Monthly
Tsunami Indicator Earthquake Detection Table, Map Every 15 Minutes Related Data Warning Siren Map Monthly
Weather Storm Indicator Weather Storm Detection Table, Map Every 15 Minutes Related Data Satellite Images Images Live Feed
Flash Flood & Mud Slide
Indicator
Rainfall Level Table, Map Every 15 Minutes Related Data Flood Direction Map Monthly Village at Risk Map Monthly Area at Risk Map Monthly
The structure of the application is shown in Figure 6. The
entire network is connected through a private Government Information Network (GIN). The existing system setup is intended to be used for information processing and storing
disaster warning information and messages, primary data is kept at the primary intuitions.
Figure 6 depicts the structure of the electronic system at the Center.
Figure 6.
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D. System Interface: Web Application and Web Portal The system is interface is divided into two parts. One is
for the web application to be used by the Center staff and network experts who review the warning cases. The other is the web portal for public access to communicate disaster
related information such as current existing warnings and past events.
Figure 7 depicts the details of a case. Here, experts can view in-depth information for each case to make proper recommendation
Figure 7.
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In an event of a disaster, more information is given to the public, such as daily updates on flood water level, as shown in the figure 8.
Figure 8.
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IV. OBSTACLES AND FUTURE WORKS
There are two main obstacles for the current approach. One is the difficulty of coordinating data between the various agencies. Government agencies are very sensitive about sharing their data to other organizations, even among government departments within the same Ministry. Also, the organization of data for each primary institution is diverse. For some, the data is aggregated into one central server, while others are mostly located in the remote areas are only accessed and view, but not stored, at the central application server. The task of locating and access data related to disaster preparation and response will take time to be used effectively for all natural disasters. Of the current five, only tsunami, earthquake and flooding data is fully integrated into the system. Storm warnings and landslides are not fully functional. The issue also has to do with the sense of authority. By giving up information to the Center, the primary institutions may feel that they have lost their prerogative in the data and ability to make their own decisions.
Another important obstacle is the lack of standardization of disaster related data and process. Currently, same data from each different organization are kept in a different format, whether electronic format or measurement format. The situation makes data integration difficult and sometimes unusable. Also, the service-level agreement for response time and standard operating procedure during disaster situation is also not clear. How long does the system wait between sending out warning messages to experts for review? Who will the experts report to after the messages are sent out? These are some of the operating issues that will need to be clarified for the system to work effectively.
However, the work will not be successful without the vital support from the National Disaster Warning Center. The author would like to thank their support for their funding and coordination with networked agencies for their cooperation in
data integration. The importance of their continue push to make disaster warning a national priority cannot be overstated.
Future work includes closer integration with existing primary institutions to provide faster data integration and standardization between similar data sources. Expansion to new primary institutions will also help expand the capability to report for other natural disasters as well as other types of disasters.
As a country that is facing increasing environmental change as well as political change, Thailand needs to establish a working system to handle emergency situations. The current system is a plausible start to efficiently manage natural disaster related information. Also, the fact that the information is accessible to both the general public and experts will help push the visibility of the project to a wider-scale acceptation by the participating intuitions.
REFERENCES [1] Health Volunteers Overseas, "Good Intensions Are Not Enough," The
Volunteer Connection, p. 7, Spring 2010. [2] W. Vanneuville, "Is ‘Flood Risk Management’ Identical to ‘Flood
Disaster Management’?," Earthzine, 2011. [3] F. V. Christopher D. Hill, "Flash Flood Early Warning System Reference
Guide 2010," University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, 2010. [4] T. F. K. K. Fumio Nagai, "Central-Local Government Relationship in
Thailand," Institute of Developing Economies Japan External Trade Organization, 2008.
[5] K. K. Fumio Nagai, "Local Capability and Decentralization in Thailand," Institute of Developing Economies Japan External Trade Organization, 2008.
[7] W. Z. W. Y. L. Deng, "Application and discussion on Emergency Data Exchange Language in emergency management," in 18th International Conference on Geoinformations, 2010.
[8] A. M. A. W. I. P. W. I. P. Rajabifard, "Developing Spatial Data Infrastructure to Facilitate Disaster Management," National Cartographic Centre, 2004.
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