Ateneo develops mobile application for flood monitoring and reporting

MANILA, Philippines - Come rainy days, reporting and monitoring flooded areas will be a mere text away with the Ateneo Java Wireless Competency Center’s (AJWCC) new mobile application aptly called “Flood Patrol.”

“Flood Patrol” lets citizens report and retrieve real-time flood information via the mobile phone. It was developed especially for PAGASA/DOST’s Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards), a website that predicts the amount of rainfall in the whole Philippines.

The Android flood reporting and monitoring application gathers flood data from citizens, then uploads it on the Web in real time. Using the flood patrol, history of reported floods in real time can be viewed and filtered for a particular time or depth/height.

The application requires the user to take a picture of the flooded area for validation and at the same time allows one to view the reports on the map. The reported floods are color-coded based on the height. The map can also be zoomed into a particular area to monitor specific areas.

Dr. Reena Estuar, executive director of the AJWCC, said that since a lot of people have mobile phones now, they wanted to develop applications that can empower citizens to do something about disaster monitoring and disaster preparedness. “Reporting floods in your area helps local governments and other institutions where they need to focus on at a certain time,” Estuar said.

During the recent launch of Project NOAH, Estuar said there was a clamor from the public to have a mobile application for the project, that’s why she coordinated with Dr. Mahar Lagmay, project director of Project NOAH.

The application is now being used by Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan, a Jesuit-led organization that is committed to the service of the Filipino Church and the Filipino people.

“The history of Flood Patrol goes way back to 2008 when the school emphasized including disaster related projects in our activities. We had students doing visualization of weather data,” she said.

The AJWCC is a research center under Ateneo’s Department of Information Systems and Computer Science. It is focused on developing mobile applications for education, health and disaster.

The AJWCC was formed to facilitate research in wireless technologies and incubate mobile products for industry partners such as Globe Labs, Smart Communications, ABS-CBN Interactive, GMA New Media Inc., etc.

It has done research in the following areas: Mobile Learning, Mobile Games, and Mobile Solutions for business, disaster management and tele-medicine.

“The app is user-friendly because it does not ask you to type in so many details but asks you to confirm everything you put,” Estuar said.

“In the future, we will do an app that can do more predictions on floods which will help us in disaster prevention,” she added.

The rise of cellphones

The prevalence of cellphone use in reporting and monitoring floods has become common in the Philippines since the time of typhoon “Ondoy” because Filipinos are more attuned to the use of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. 

“News channels, netizens, local government units, government agencies used Facebook and mobile telcos as the source of information to reach out for help for victims of that 2009 disaster,” socialpulsmagazine.com said.

An article of Spot.ph entitled “National Heroes’ Day: Celebrating the Heroes of Habagat” said, “Filipinos at home utilized the Internet and social media to get help to where it was needed.”

In the recent floods caused by the northeast monsoon which wreaked havoc in the National Capital Region and the Calabarzon region, citizens used their cellphones to report and also to receive relief from local government units.

“When (the northeast monsoon) struck the country, netizens wasted no time in sharing photos and warnings of the onslaught of rains. We were also able to create a relief and donation center map, and a rescue request form for those who needed rescuing. Others flocked to Twitter for updates, sharing information on people that need help via hashtags,” the article said.

Project NOAH

Launched a month before the northeast monsoon, PAGASA-DOST’s Project NOAH was tested and proven accurate because it was able to warn residents of Marikina City of the heavy rainfall.

In an interview with Spot.ph, Lagmay said, “Despite the record danger level, Marikina was successful in evacuating people. The element of surprise was not there. Government was able to inform the people.”

Aside from the media, government agencies also use the Internet and mobile technologies to disseminate information and disaster relief.

“The awareness in social media even prompted PAGASA to release a statement that everyone must tune in to their Twitter accounts to keep updated of the latest weather (conditions). This statement was later corrected as many reacted, mainly those who don’t have social networking sites accounts. Malacañang clarified the statement with PAGASA thereafter and the latter issued a statement that Twitter is just one of the sources of information aside from other media channels like TV and radio,” socialplusmagazine.com said.

Flood Patrol can be downloaded at https://play.google.com/store/