Annex II. Disaster management information systems (with
Reference to floods and drought) in selected countries of
Asia and the Pacific
1. Indonesia
Indonesia Disaster Management Information System
(SIPBI)
Developed by the National Disaster Management Coordinating
Board (Bakornas PB) with support from UNDP, SIPBI is aimed
at enhancing Bakornas PB’s decision-making capability through
reliable and up-to-date information support during natural
disasters – including floods and drought.
SIPBI has been responsible for (a) formulating concepts
and designs, (b) establishing operational mechanisms (at
present on a pilot basis at the national level and in four
project areas), (c) standardizing disaster management information
or data, (d) formulating standard operating procedures for
system operations, and (e) facilitating development of similar
systems in other disaster-prone districts and provinces.
SIPBI has been instrumental in the (a) development of a
computer networking system, (b) development of databases
for disaster management and (c) development of geographic
information system (GIS) for disaster management. The GIS
component aims at developing risk maps at the national,
provincial and district levels. The maps, at national (1:500,000)
and provincial (1:250,000) levels, are used to determine
priority provinces and areas for disaster-management activities
and planning and for installation of early warning systems.
The district-level maps (1:50,000) are used for district
contingency planning <www.bakornaspbp.or.id>.
2. India
Vulnerability Atlas of India
In 1997 the Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment, Government
of India, constituted an expert group to prepare a “vulnerability
atlas” taking into account the three natural hazards that
are the most common and damaging to India, namely earthquakes,
cyclones and floods. The map zones are at a macro level
because maps of the three hazards are available at a small
scale for areas all over the country. To make this information
readily available to planners, administrators and disaster
managers, these maps were prepared at a relatively coarse
scale, state-wise, showing all the administrative units,
particularly the district boundaries, for easy identification
of the areas covered by the zones of various intensity levels.
The Vulnerability Atlas contains the following information
for each state and union territory of India:
- Seismic hazard map
- Cyclone and wind hazard map
- Flood-prone area map
- Housing stock vulnerability table for each district,
indicating for each house type and the level of risk to
which it could be subjected some time in the future.
The Vulnerability Atlas has been providing an important
input into state-level disaster management planning.
3. Philippines
The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) is the
highest policy-making body in disaster management in the
Philippines. In 2000, NDCC began installing an Emergency
Management Information System that will link up all the
regional centres electronically and make available vital
information to the public through the Internet. The system
has four components: Emergency Reporting and Monitoring,
Emergency Logistics Management, Emergency Fund Management
and Geographic Information System. The Advanced Geographic
Information Display System has been established at the Philippines
National Disaster Management Centre in Camp Aguinaldo, Manila.
It is linked to all member organizations of the NDCC as
well as the regional offices of the Office of Civil Defence,
which form the Secretariat of the Regional Disaster Coordinating
Councils. The integrated database comprises spatial information,
such as digitized maps, aerial photos and satellite data,
while the non-spatial data on display covers a history of
disasters, demographic databases, response team and a directory
of key contacts and resources. NDCC is also assessing existing
systems for early warning to identify areas for upgrading
and enhancement.
4. Viet Nam
The main disaster coordination body in Viet Nam, the Central
Committee for Storm and Flood Control (CCSFC), is located
in the Department of Dyke Management and Flood and Storm
Control in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Its Standing Office, the SOCCFSC, is the agency with the
main responsibility for monitoring the effects of storms
and floods, gathering damage data, providing official warnings,
and coordinating and implementing disaster response and
mitigation measures. It relies on the administrative structure
of the Dyke Department to carry out its disaster assessment,
disaster reporting and emergency coordination duties. When
a flood or storm occurs, the district-level officials are
responsible for sending a district disaster assessment report
to the provincial level, which collates and verifies them
and forwards them to SOCCFSC, which in turn collates the
provincial reports to produce a national damage assessment
report. To expedite the transmission of this information,
SOCCFSC has set up a disaster communication system, an emergency
electronic mail network that links provincial Dyke Department
offices with SOCCFSC. The disaster communication system
was started in 1995, and by late 1998 was extended to every
province in Viet Nam.
The Government of Viet Nam funded a large portion, with
additional funding received from UNDP, the Government of
Luxembourg and Statoil Alliance. The system operates 24
hours a day, 365 days a year, and has become the official,
obligatory mechanism for transmitting disaster damage and
needs data to SOCCFSC. It is also used to issue disaster
prevention or mitigation directives to its staff in the
field, i.e. the provincial Dyke Department officials and
district dyke monitors. The system was used effectively
in recent flood seasons as a tool for gathering damage data.
SOCCFSC has created a department-wide Intranet, accessible
to both central disaster management authorities and officials
in the localities in Viet Nam, with the assistance of the
UNDP Disaster Management Unit in Hanoi, to serve as a general
reference tool for disaster managers in their day-to-day
work.
The SOCCFSC mechanism for making disaster information available
to the public has been the Internet. With the help of the
Disaster Management Unit, SOCCFSC maintains a bilingual,
Web-based public information system to encourage information
sharing by all sectors, and it disseminates key information
on disaster management to the aid community.
This disaster management web site also has developed the
prototype for the SOCCFSC Intranet, which contains more
detailed, strictly internal information and documents used
by SOCCFSC and the Dyke Department in their daily operations.
A link was also established for SOCCFSC’s automatic
receipt of hydrometeorological inputs on vital flood and
typhoon forecasts. The forecasts are received up to four
times per day and along with SOCCFSC’s computerized
mathematical models of discharges from major reservoirs,
form the basis of official SOCCFSC’s disaster warning
work. The official hydrometeorological reports, based on
official SOCCFSC directives that are sent via the disaster
communication system to its staff in the field, are posted
on the web site. SOCCFSC supplements the official hydrometeorological
bulletins with forecasts, satellite images and graphics
downloaded from the Internet (notably from the web sites
of the United States Joint Typhoon Warning Centre and from
the Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre Tokyo-Typhoon
Centre, operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency under
the framework of the World Weather Watch of the World Meteorological
Organization.
The development of the UNDP Disaster Management Unit, based
on a GIS database, is organized to support the decision-making
processes. By producing thematic hazard and vulnerability
maps using selected variables (economic value, population,
flood risk and age of infrastructure, for example), the
GIS-based models are used to identify risk areas and clarify
how best to respond to or to mitigate the risk of disaster.
Similarly, the GIS databases are used to assess the damage
attributable to the disasters, which makes it easier for
international organizations and Viet Nam decision makers
to target disaster relief aid <www.undp.org.vn/dmu>.
5. Sri Lanka
Under the Ministry of Social Welfare, Sri Lanka has established
a disaster management information system called the Social
Management Information System (SOMIS). The National Disaster
Management Centre (NDMC) of Sri Lanka is developing a database
that will incorporate various aspects of disaster management
integrated with SOMIS, and the software will be compatible
with commonly used operating platforms.
|
