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EXCLUSIVE – Leveraging ICT for disaster warning and management at BNPB, Indonesia

EXCLUSIVE - Leveraging ICT for disaster warning and management at BNPB

OpenGov speaks to Dr. Ir. Agus Wibowo, the Head of Information Division under the Centre of data, information and public relations at the Indonesian National Disaster Management Authority or the Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB). Indonesia is prone to earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and volcanic activity due to its geographic location on the Pacific Ring of Fire.  

BNPB was established in 2008 to replace the National Disaster Management Coordinating Board. BNPB’s responsibilities include providing guidance and direction on disaster management effort, including disaster prevention, emergency response, rehabilitation, and reconstruction.

BNPB provides basic maps, disaster maps and other geospatial information that can be accessed by the public without any charge. Over 1000 disaster maps are available in the BNPB’s Geospatial Website.

BNPB uses unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, as a low-cost option for rapid assessment during catastrophic disasters through aerial photographs.

BNPB also uses InaSAFE, a free, open source software jointly developed by BNPB, the Australian government, the World Bank and independent contributors. It pulls together data from multiple sources, scientists, local governments and communities to analyse the likely impacts of future disaster events. It produces realistic natural hazard impact scenarios for better planning, preparedness and response activities. InaSAFE has the ability to work with road data, including a capability to download roads maps directly from the online mapping tool OpenStreetMap (OSM). This assists in planning possible evacuation and emergency response routes.

The latest version of InaSAFE, 3.5.0 was released in August 2016.

Can you tell us about your role?

I am responsible for handling all the IT and communication infrastructure in the BNPB office, for setting, procurement, installation and configuration of all the IT and communication infrastructure in BNPB.

What are your areas of focus in terms of IT?

One is the data centre and Internet connection in our office. We are developing some data centres. We have one data centre and one back-up in our office.

The data centre handles all the websites, database and applications in our office. We have to handle the Internet connection between our two offices.

The second one is satellite coverage. We are using satellite data for base map and  pre and post-disaster mapping, including situation analysis, evacuation route maps, disaster monitoring and hazard zonation.

We use radio communication, so that we have communication between Jakarta, the different offices in the provinces, districts and municipalities and so that we can communicate during disaster relief operations. Sometimes during disasters, all the standard communication channels, such as phone lines and the Internet might go down. That’s why the backup system through radio communications, suing HF or VHF (High Frequency or Very High Frequency) is very important.

Are you using any big data analytics tools?
Not yet, but we are starting to look into big data usage. We are trying to explore data mining so that we can mine data from newspapers and online social media such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

We are also mining data from telephone number connections. The system is working with the telephone provider so that in the event of a disaster, we can monitor the mobile communications to track people are moving out of the area, check how many people still remain in the area, things like that. This is still in the research phase.

Is there anything you are doing in prediction and disaster warning systems?
Now we’re starting work on a multi-hazard warning system. Earlier we only had the tsunami early warning system.

In this project, we will combine the systems for tsunami, earthquake, flood and other disasters.

We will integrate the different data from other ministries, such as the radar from the BMKG (Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics), data from the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional/ LAPAN), from the Ministry of Public Works, perform required computations and arrive at an early warning system to predict, for instance, which area will be hit by flood, which area might suffer from an earthquake. We are about halfway there.

Are you taking any steps for improving public access to information?

We are serving information the public through website, mobile applications. We are also using social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube for publishing information.

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Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

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SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

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HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

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IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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