Responding to Flood Emergencies

Clemens Kiepke won the DVW (Germany’s Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management) GIS Best Practice Award in 2014 for a spatially-based smartphone application to organise volunteers during flood emergencies.

Coastal and fluvial flood defence protection are long-standing tasks and duties which are especially important in the present day, when we experience ever more extreme flood events. In Germany the largest areas of recent flooding have occurred through weaknesses of river flood banks and defence systems.

Geodetic surveyors are required in this context as data managers and their work has a raised profile as a result of events such as the four major floods that have taken place on the River Elbe in the last thirteen years. The findings of these disasters have clearly shown that surveyors are able to contribute as data experts and managers for the entire process from data collection to presentation of spatial data.

During the flood of 2013 there was a problem with the distribution of volunteers, who gathered to help with filling sandbags. In some places there were too many and others too few. One of the main aims of writing the app was to organise volunteers in disaster situations by providing suitable geographical information on modern mobile media in order to guide the right people in the right place at the right time.

In order to reach as many people as possible, an application for smartphones was developed for IOS and Android to provide easy access to general and to geographical information covering a large area. The app has been implemented for a pilot region on the River Elbe for the Artlenburger Dike Association of Lüneburg (Lower Saxony, Germany). Following the successful pilot, it could be transferred to other organisations.

Data organisation

There were several stages in the development of the app:

• identification and structuring of information required for modelling,
• spatial data management: the collection, management and provision of the necessary geographical information. This involved collection and survey of basic and advanced geographical information and management of the data to be suitable for modelling,
• deployment of user-orientated cartographic processing using suitable modern media.

Programming

In the region covered by the pilot study extensive data was already recorded. This was restructured, mapped and analysed in the context of spatial data management to be provided for the most appropriate medium to deliver the information. It was decided that smartphones were the most suitable medium for the app.

The following was identified as necessary information in the context of such an application:

• display of the current alarm level,
• mapping of the wider area and specific information about the immediate surroundings of the flood defence,
• accurate representation of the defence,
• a defence directory,
• positioning,
• routing,
• representation of the points (defence maintenance zones) where help is needed,
• recording of data by and for the use of flood management partner organisations,
• recording of data by and for the use of flood wardens,
• current water levels,
• information about packing sandbags, etc.

Implementing the app

The size of the resulting application is approximately 50Mb. It is relatively large because there is a need to keep the core content, the geographical information relating to the embankments, accessible even when offline. The system should therefore work even when mobile networks are overloaded during periods of flooding. Indeed the expansion of mobile infrastructure and networks could also contribute to the protection of flood defences!

The application includes the following components:

1. Spatial data covering the direct embankment area. The user is directed to the DSK mapping (German digital streetmap 1:10,000). This map is overlaid with information about access routes for emergency crews, flood defence maintenance zones as points of interest and the shape, slope and height of the flood embankment. Google maps is an underlying layer, through which positioning and routing are enabled.
2. An alphabetical directory which gives users some information about the flood defence.
3. Water levels for areas of interest, which are updated daily.
4. Members of the public who wish to help can go to the ‘volunteers’ tab and will find a list of the flood defence maintenance zones. The system is controlled through a traffic light system – ‘Red’ – showing that help is needed and ‘Green’ – that there is no problem. When pressing the desired maintenance zone on the screen, the graphic jumps to it. A route will then be made available. In this way, volunteers are directed to areas where help is needed, efficiently and accurately.
5. For each section of embankment, responsible organisations, flood wardens and patrols can create reports on damaged areas of the embankment. The reports are formalised and sent after their completion with photos and location to a collection database. These internal reports help in organising the deployment of embankment guards in an easier, faster and a more economical way. Furthermore, in this section, users can find extensive, but not public, contact information.
6. There is a ‘more’ tab where users can find general information about the Dike Association and also practical information, such as how to pack sandbags.

Harnessing help

The willingness to help is, in the concerned areas, to be encouraged. This app is intended to make it easier for all those involved to coordinate and act in the event of a disaster, bringing potential volunteers to the areas where they are needed most. This application seeks to inspire young people to participate and increasingly to bring about a ‘culture of help’ through the medium of smartphones.

The app allows more effective action to be taken because many functions include spatial data and a routing system. Institutional bodies, such as the fire brigade, army and other organisations can also be led directly into the locations where they are most needed. The development of the application is to be continued in order to fulfill various additional purposes.

It is necessary to develop a clear chain of responsibility through the individual alarm levels. In Lower Saxony, the jurisdiction changes at a certain stage from the embankment associations to the county.

This article was published in Geomatics World March/April 2015