A debris-flow alarm system for the Alpine Illgraben catchment: design and performance

We describe the development, implementation, and first analyses of the performance of a debris-flow warning system for the Illgraben catchment and debris fan area. The Illgraben catchment (9.5km2), located in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland, in the Rhone River valley, is characterized by frequent and voluminous sediment transport and debris-flow activity, and is one of the most active debris-flow catchments in the Alps. It is the site of an instrumented debris-flow observation station in operation since the year 2000. The residents in Susten (municipality Leuk), tourists, and other land users, are exposed to a significant hazard. The warning system consists of four modules: community organizational planning (hazard awareness and preparedness), event detection and alerting, geomorphic catchment observation, and applied research to facilitate the development of an early warning system based on weather forecasting. The system presently provides automated alert signals near the active channel prior to (5-15min) the arrival of a debris flow or flash flood at the uppermost frequently used channel crossing. It is intended to provide data to support decision-making for warning and evacuation, especially when unusually large debris flows are expected to leave the channel near populated areas. First-year results of the detection and alert module in comparison with the data from the independent debris-flow observation station are generally favorable. Twenty automated alerts (alarms) were issued, which triggered flashing lights and sirens at all major footpaths crossing the channel bed, for three debris flows and 16 flood flows. Only one false alarm was issued. The major difficulty we encountered is related to the variability and complexity of the events (e.g., events consisting of multiple surges) and can be largely solved by increasing the duration of the alarm. All of the alarms for hazardous events were produced by storms with a rainfall duration and intensity larger than the threshold for debris-flow activity that was defined in an earlier study, supporting our intention to investigate the use of rainfall forecasts to increase the time available for warning and implementation of active countermeasure

Modelling Case-Based Reasoning in Situation-Aware Disaster Management

Situation-aware disaster management (SADIM) is a continuous decision-making and action taking process. This process requires prior knowledge of the ongoing environment and context. SADIM comprises two major processes: situation awareness (SA) - a cognitive process that assesses current situations and anticipate future situations in the environment; and, disaster management (DM) which is a decision-making process preventing, preparing, responding, and recovering for and from a disaster. One of the decision-making technologies used in current SADIM is case-based reasoning (CBR) CBR is used for the disaster management element only. Situation awareness process in current SADIM is carried out using domain rules, statistical reasoning and other methods. This paper therefore presents a method of using CBR to carry out both situation assessment and disaster management decision-making processes in SADIM, building on previous work focusing in SA alone. Using CBR for both processes provides the capability of using past experiences to understand the state of the environment and also solve specific disaster problems. The paper evaluates the method through implementation in disaster prevention in the petroleum drilling domain for early kick detection to prevent a blowout disaster. The results show a clear improvement in similarity assessment and problem solving prediction to prevent blowout

Mobile web resource tracking during a disaster or crisis situation

This paper proposes a prototype solution for a mobile web resource tracking system using mobile devices during an emergency situation. The system provides real time data to a decision maker so that he/she can effectively and efficiently monitor resources and assess the situation accordingly. Mobile devices (i.e., smart phones) support the ease of use for any location and at anytime. The Internet technology is selected to enable multiple or cross platform technology solutions for different mobile devices. Resources in the scope of this project are human resources (e.g., a doctor, a police officer) and a chemical list in a room. With the use of a GPS-enabled device or a wireless-enabled device, the system is used to provide the current location of the human resources. Transferring data between system databases and mobile devices is one of the important areas to address in this project. Since location data of a user is sensitive data, data should be protected via an encrypted protected network. In addition, because of the urgency of any crisis situation, it is critical that data from the system be able to be retrieved in a reasonable time frame. The investigation includes the exploration of database and data transfer solutions to meet the data availability during emergency conditions on mobile devices. This document includes a description of the system design, a review of current technologies, proposed methodology, and the implementation. Review of the literature section provides background information on current available technologies that were studied (section 3). Four identified factors are suggested in the system design – usability, security, availability, and performance. The discussion of which technology is selected for each feature can be found in the implementation section 4. Proposed future research areas can be found in the conclusion section and recommendations for future work section

The applicability of the 3C model for understanding the use of technology in emergency management scenarios

The nature of emergency is intensive, imposing challenges related to the way coagencies collaborate. The 3C model consists of the combination of three elements, namely communication, coordination, and cooperation, connecting in a cycle, illustrating the nature of collaborative work for accomplishing certain tasks. Very few studies considered the use of the 3C model for improving collaboration in domains other than emergency management. This paper presents a scoping review of the literature in the domain of emergency management, focusing on how the 3C model can help us understand the use of technology for improving collaboration. The paper identifies the commonalities between the elements of the 3C model for improving our understanding of collaboration in emergency management scenarios, and indicating the inter-relationships among the elements of the 3C model that are applicable for understanding the topology of technology use in emergency management

Real-Time Context-Aware Computing with Applications in Civil Infrastructure Systems.

This dissertation contributes a structured understanding of the fundamental processes involved in developing context-aware computing applications for the civil infrastructure industry. The civil infrastructure industry is characterized by mobile human and machine agents actively engaged in real-time decision-making tasks in a dynamic and unstructured workspace environment. This distinguishes context-aware computing from other computing technologies in three aspects: 1) it has the ability to perceive, interpret, and adapt to the agent’s evolving workspace; 2) It streamlines project data and presents the agent with information pertinent to its context, thus eliminating the agent’s tasks to accomplish the same; 3) By leveraging contextual information, it supplements decision-making tasks in real-time. This research has successfully investigated technical approaches to address fundamental aspects of introducing context-aware applications to civil engineering, including: the ubiquitous localization of mobile agents in dynamic, unstructured environments; abstraction of the spatial-context and identifying the objects of interest to the agent; and the suitability of using standard models to manage and organize data for context-aware computing applications. A computational framework for designing context-aware applications to support real-time decision-making has also been implemented. The framework allows researchers and other end users to leverage currently available context-sensing technology to design and implement innovative solutions to domain specific problems. The researched methods have been validated through several experiments conducted at the University of Michigan, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Michigan Department of Transportation. These experiments have resulted in the implementation of several applications – to support real-life decision-making tasks – that not only serve to illustrate the usefulness of the framework, but also have significant social and economic implications. Among these applications are the controlled drilling system that warns drilling personnel when the drill bit tip is about to strike rebar or utility lines, thus helping preserve the structural integrity of concrete decks and preventing utility strike accidents; an automated fault detection system that diagnoses faulty components of an underperforming HVAC distribution network; and an innovative bridge inspection solution that supports condition assessment decision-making, thus introducing objectivity to visual condition assessment by providing concurrence with the Structural Health Monitoring data.PhDCivil EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/99816/1/akulaman_1.pd

Cyber Security

This open access book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Annual Conference on Cyber Security, CNCERT 2020, held in Beijing, China, in August 2020. The 17 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 58 submissions. The papers are organized according to the following topical sections: access control; cryptography; denial-of-service attacks; hardware security implementation; intrusion/anomaly detection and malware mitigation; social network security and privacy; systems security

Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on ASEAN (IC-ASEAN) "Towards a better ASEAN", September 5-6, 2019; Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia

Since the establishment of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) as a regional organization in 1967, it has played a significant role most importantly related to regional affairs and has also given notable contribution to the international arena. Undisputedly, ASEAN has been successfully fostering good relations among its members since its foundation. After completing the first period of its vision of an integrated regional community (ASEAN Community 2015), ASEAN is now preparing for the launch of ASEAN Community Vision 2025, supported by ASEAN Connectivity 2025. As a study center focusing primarily and solely on ASEAN, in collaboration with the Directorate General of ASEAN Cooperation, Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Center of ASEAN Studies Andalas University, will be hosting the International Conference on ASEAN (IC-ASEAN) as a platform to evaluate past actions, to discuss present issues, and to provide an outlook for the future of ASEAN. Aims and Scope The International Conference on ASEAN (IC-ASEAN) is a multidisciplinary conference which covers a broad range of area. The sub theme will be divided into two large categories focusing on ASEAN Community 2015 and 2025 also ASEAN Connectivity 2025. The sub theme related to ASEAN Community will cover issues related to the three pillars (Political-security Community, Economic Community and Social-cultural Community). Meanwhile the ASEAN Connectivity sub theme will include issues within the key areas (Physical Connectivity, Institutional Connectivity and People-to-people Connectivity

Urban Informatics

This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently – to become ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ‘big’ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity

Urban Informatics

This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently – to become ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ‘big’ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity