The Role of ICTs for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in Sri Lanka

Transcription

1 The Role of ICTs for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in Sri Lanka Sriganesh Lokanathan Workshop on ICT for Promo>ng Inclusive and Disaster Resilient Development Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia 14 th May 2015 This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the Interna>onal Development Research Centre, Canada.

2 Sri Lanka is subject to many types of natural disasters Floods Landslides Drought Lighting Cyclone Storms, Sea Level Rise, Coastal Erosion Tsunami Department of Irrigation National Building Research Org. Department of Agriculture Department of Meteorology Coast Conservation Department 2

3 The 2004 tsunami had the highest impact on human life, but there are other hazards that occur more frequently Loss of lives due to frequently occurring hazards ( ) 24% 39% 96% 9% 28% Flood Cyclone/ High winds Tsunami Landslide Lightning Without the 2004 Tsunami Source: Sri Lanka Comprehensive Disaster Management Program 3

4 The Ins>tu>onal Framework for DRM in Sri Lanka under the Ministry for Disaster Management 4

5 The DMC is the implemen>ng agency for all stages of the disaster lifecycle - Runs the Emergency Opera>ons Centre - Maintains 77 mul>- hazard warning towers along the coastal belt - Maintains a fully equipped vehicle on standby - Has distributed PA systems to local community organiza>ons, held capacity building programs, mapped evacua>on routes etc. The lack of open data and insufficient collaboration between government agencies are the main challenges faced by the DMC 5

6 Use of ICTs for DRM in Sri Lanka Landslide mapping using Google s satellite imagery Rainfall gauges that transmit data every 30 mins via the mobile network Drought predic>on app (on Android) à soil- moisture ra>o, rainfall, temperature etc. Ground Penetra>on Radar to detect cavi>es A critical obstacle in implementing and integrating technology in to DRM has been mind-sets 6

7 Use of ICTs for DRM in Sri Lanka Stages of the disaster lifecycle MITIGATION Examples of ICT use in LK GIS / Hazard maps PREPAREDNESS Early Warning Systems (E.g. DEWN) RESPONSE & RECOVERY E.g. Sahana Disaster Management System 7

8 Resilience of ICTs in Sri Lanka: What are mobile network operators doing? Disaster recovery plans are a mandatory pre- requisite for suppliers to the mobile network operators KPI: 100% recovery (across all technologies and services) within 96 hours of shut down Electricity is cri>cal; ocen a choke point Back- up baeeries are in place at the high- revenue genera>ng Base Transceiver Sta>ons (BTS) Portable generators are made available on a need basis to all BTSs Cell- on- Wheels (COW) deployed when BTS is physically damaged Sri Lanka is linked with mul>ple submarine cables via 2 cable landing sta>ons (CLS) (at present with 2 more in the pipeline); redundancy is in the STM- 16 links from the CLS to mul>ple loca>ons in the city 8

9 Resilience of ICTs in Sri Lanka: An operator perspec>ve Automated Spare protocols BSCs are in place maintained; for dynamic Residual relocation capacity to BSC from neighboring RNCs used in the event of RNC failure MSC pooling (enabled by 100% IP based links in the core network) in the event of MSC failure SMS and MMS operate off virtual TDM links require machines manual à patching. dynamic In reconfigurations the (all process of being IP converted based) to IP links 9

10 Policy Recommenda>ons for governments Integrate disaster risk reduc>on (DRR) into development planning Infrastructures should be thought of holis>cally as opposed to in silos Create condi>ons for greater coopera>on among different en>>es of government U>lize technological innova>ons for disaster mi>ga>on and warning; introduce ICT- based elements into the electricity grids to enhance resilience Take steps, including open data policies, to ensure that agencies responsible for resilience and disaster response have access to the data they require Ensure adequate redundancy interna>onal segments of the ICT infrastructure (E.g. loca>on of CLS in diverse loca>ons) Define condi>ons of excep>on that can trigger mandatory na>onal roaming under specified terms. 10