DLSU’s ‘Sawatain’ helps LGUs in disaster management

Saturday, 05 March 2011 17:49 Rizal Raoul Reyes / Correspondent
Reblogged from http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/science/8219-dlsus-sawatain-helps-lgus-in-disaster-management

Information and communications technology (ICT) plays a major role in disaster governance. Being a country visited by an average of 20 typhoons a year, the Philippines must have a relevant disaster-governance road map to minimize, if not eliminate, disaster vulnerabilities and enhance the coping skills of the people.

In her paper “Local Government and Academe Partnership for Responsive e-Disaster Systems,” Maria Victoria Pineda, faculty member of the College of Computer Studies (CCS) of De La Salle University (DLSU)-Manila, said the convergence of research, education and training and ICT solutions with systematic methods, resources and capacity analysis, the elimination of risks and vulnerabilities would not be remote.

Pineda presented the paper at the recent Joint International Conference on “ICT for Development and Sustainability” in Bali, Indonesia.

In response to this need, the Center for ICT for Development (CITe4D) of the CCS of DLSU has ventured in the past years on developing Web-based management systems.

Pineda said the CITe4D has embarked on developing Web-based disaster-management systems, starting from studying and designing disaster-response systems for major government agencies. In the second phase, the CITe4D concentrated on disaster-mitigation systems as hazard mitigation because it is a very strategic approach to harm reduction in Third World countries. The rationale, according to Pineda, is to tap the local government units (LGUs) to develop community-based disaster risk-reduction functional prototypes.

At present, CITe4D has various ongoing partnerships with LGUs, among them is the province of Bulacan.

Partnering with LGUs is effective in mitigating the impact of natural calamities.

According to Fazlur Rahman, deputy secretary of the ministry of disaster management and relief in Bangladesh, and academicians Jean Christophe Gaillard and Virginie Le Masson, the most effective method to supporting the competencies of the people is through community-based disaster preparedness and risk reduction.

“Sawatain” (from the Filipino word sawata, meaning to mitigate or to stop) is the Web-based flood-prediction system developed by the CCS, focusing on mapping the flood hazard or affected areas.

“The stakeholders and important agencies involved in the disaster-management workflow are able to study the effects and impacts of an incoming typhoon by district or the whole province through visual mapping,” said Pineda.

Sawatain was able to predict the risk level of the municipalities in Bulacan through simulations of the impact of rainfall in the province. The versioning system conducts the simulation test before the actual rainfall, or when the rainfall reaches the area of responsibility.

Sawatain, according to Pineda, can predict the number of people and families who will be affected in each town and provide information to agencies, such as the LGUs.

“The system provides an effective alternate method of early warning through the Web system and short messaging system.”

Pineda said the system helps in the decision-making process of the Bulacan Provincial Disaster Management Office and the governor’s office by providing on-time reports.

Moreover, she said the flooded areas and evacuation centers become accessible to the citizens through the use of Google maps.

In terms of economics, Sawatain will not cost an arm and a leg, so to speak. It was developed using open source development tools, which can be modified for further developments since the codes are not proprietary.

At the moment, Pineda said the CITe4D is looking for potential partners in the country. She said the LGUs must realize that academic institutions, such as DLSU, can provide reliable and at the same cost-effective solutions.

Moreover, she said DLSU wants to prove to the government that it has certain competencies in the field of disaster management. Having a head-start, she said the CCS is familiar with the open-source solution, a system ideal for such project because it is cost-effective and easier for other developers to develop solutions on top of it.

“Academe, especially the higher-education institutions, can spearhead and initiate meaningful partnerships with the local communities or the LGUs in crafting ICT solutions that will enhance disaster mitigation and preparedness. Based on the CITe4D experience, there is a very good opportunity of designing systems that cater to the requirements of the community and developing cost-effective solutions,” she said.

Under the partnership, academe shall be interfacing with other entities, such as the LGU office, the community and other attached agencies like the weather bureau, among others.

According to Pineda, the academe will gather and synthesize the workflow and coordination processes of the different units, determine the user requirements, and design a sustainable infrastructure and ICT solution based on the financial and sustainability capabilities of the LGU.

Equipped with a strong ICT competency, Pineda said academe would be in-charge of the system’s feasibility or prototyping study and the whole project-management details.