Responding to disasters through applications and software

Starting from September every year, Quang Nam province enters the rainy and stormy season, along with flooding in many places. Therefore, it is important to regulate irrigation and hydropower reservoirs to reduce floods downstream and avoid heavy loss in life and property.

On the other hand, today's informational technology is developing each day, application of new scientific and technical advances in order to accurately manage and forecast natural disaster risks will help the prevention work more effective. Over the years, Quang Nam province has applied a number of excellent technology applications, connecting management agencies, operating units and the community.

According to Quang Nam Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, before the rainy season, the general direction of this province is to focus on inspecting all disaster-related constructions. In particular, inspecting natural disaster prevention works, reservoirs for irrigation, hydropower, and dike systems. If there are signs of unsafety, then a solution must be proposed.

Accordingly, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will be in charge of 2 areas including safety inspection of dams, reservoirs and dikes; The Department of Industry and Trade is in charge of inspecting hydropower reservoirs. For localities, all construction works in the area will be inspected and an annual plan to respond to disaster risk levels will be compiled.

Truong Xuan Ty, Deputy Director of Quang Nam Department of Agriculture and Rural Development  Province, said that currently, the application of science and technology in natural disaster prevention and control to hydropower reservoirs in Quang Nam is the online connection.

Accordingly, the Provincial Steering Committee Office for Disaster Prevention and Search and Rescue (PCTT-TKCN) will monitor the operation of the reservoirs via camera system and web. Hydropower plants will update their operation results continuously on the website of the Provincial Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control. From there, operational data and images will grant appropriate instructions.

“From 2020, in flood management, the Provincial Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control has held online meetings with hydropower plants. In which, there are main 4 hydropower plants with large storage capacity, over 500 million m3, affecting downstream areas in the rainy season as well as in the dry season, including Song Tranh 2, Song Bung 4, Dak Mi 4 and A Vuong Hydropower Plant.

These hydropower plants are enhanced with 24/24h monitoring during the rainy season using technologies such as monitoring and direct monitoring via cameras; online meeting. The community will receive information through the provincial disaster prevention website. Regularly, the website will update once a day at 7 am. When a natural disaster occurs and it is necessary to regulate the operation of the spillway, the regulation shall update once every 30 minutes. If it is complicated, it will be updated continuously, every 15 minutes", Mr. Ty said.

In addition to the above, people in frequently flooded areas are also warned by text messages. By now, the Provincial Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control has obtained infromation on all subscribers in frequently flooded areas within the Vu Gia - Thu Bon river system to send warning messages when needed.

The Provincial Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control will also compose a flood warning message, and send it through the Department of Information and Communications to all network operators present in Quang Nam. In addition, through Zalo, the functional unit will provide information on the list of emergency phone numbers for people to call.

A representative of Quang Nam Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that in order to respond more effectively, the province is building an Application for natural disaster prevention and evacuation software. People can download these programs to their smartphones, thereby accessing all the warning information.

The disaster prevention application acts as a guide for people, providing technical support such as responses to rain and storm from preparation, response to recovery stages for each disaster. In addition, the application will provide all disaster maps such as flood maps by alarm level, strong storm and super typhoons response maps, tsunami response maps, etc., as well as information on rainfall, the latest news on disaster prevention and control.

“Regarding the evacuation software, this software will provide a flood map. The map will show locations to evacuate, safe locations when there is a risk of flooding at alarm levels. From the commune level, information about the evacuation situation will be provided and then uploaded to the software so that the district and province levels can access it quickly and accurately”, said Deputy Director of Quang Nam Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Truong Xuan Ty informed.

"Evacuation software is also very effective when people can locate themselves on the flood map, to see if there is danger. If in danger, they will know the nearest evacuation location. Not only that, people also have the right to respond on this software. For example, in a natural disaster, if people see a flood without the presence of functional sectors, they can take pictures. and send to the software to report," said Mr. Truong Xuan Ty.