Malaysian crowdsourced database for flood reports – Wired PR Lifestyle Story
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It has been more than 2 weeks since the tragic floods in Malaysia began in mid-December 2021, but it still seems to see no end.
Lately, the Johor floods have hit hard, almost 4K people are now displaced. Residents of the Malaysian mainland coast have also been advised to be on high alert this week.
The government is working to complete an early flood warning system called the National Flood Warning and Warning Center (PRABN) by 2023. He says this will give Malaysia a two-day alert before the disaster strikes.
But we have seen that our friends in Malaysia do not sit and do anything while their peers try to repair the damage caused by the floods or continue to deal with the phenomenon.
Thus, Muaz Kamel, director of the engineering consultancy company (Coastal and Hydraulic). Me and the associate doctor (DNA) with the group Ifcon Technology they presented a site called BencanaBanjir.com.
The site was created one day, and the team continues to improve the system.
Meet the group
This initiative seems to be led by Muaz, a professional engineer with experience in work related to the sea and hydraulics, in countries with lands below sea level, such as the Netherlands.
In DNA, he and his team are conducting research on flood disasters both domestically and abroad. Despite the strength of the flood investigation, he also admitted that the floods of December 2021 surprised his team.
It broke the forecasts and the data records they had. According to their research, a phenomenon of this scale occurs only once every 100 years. But it is likely that due to climate change, these natural disasters will start to become more unpredictable.
Therefore, being able to collect and analyze current data is important for the team to create frameworks and help government authorities develop a stronger infrastructure for the future.
Although authorities are collecting data with their own methods, receiving information directly from affected communities is much faster and can be more accurate if done in good faith.
What does he do?
The goal of BencanaBanjir.com is to gather crucial data on those on the ground in flood areas to create a more accurate and accurate flood analytical database.
Once the team has this data, they can share it with the authorities to improve planning, reduce and prevent flood-related deaths, damage and loss.
Basically, the site is a crowdsourced database, and it collected more than 26 December 2021 (3 days after its launch). 500 reports from the victims.
How does it work?
If you are in a flooded area, here are 5 easy steps.
- Go to BencanaBanjir.com, which is available on computer and mobile browsers.
- Choose your language: Bahasa Melayu, English, Mandarin or Tamil.
- Set the location of the flood event that you want to report on the map.
- Click “Report incident” and fill in the required information and enter the appropriate images.
- Once you are notified of the event, you will receive an SMS to verify your report.
On the map, you can see the multi-colored dots that indicate the number of reports in an area, and click on each to see more details.
A new feature added yesterday is a warning and alert system that uses data from the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (JPS) and translates them into simple map indicators.
At a glance, it allows users to immediately realize which areas are seeing dangerous water levels, what the current state of the flood is and more, so that they can make the necessary plans.
Damage has been done, but future events can be avoided
Climate change activist Shaqib Shahril has estimated that all the losses in recent floods could be a loss. at least RMB 20 billion.
This amount is based on estimates of damage to homes and residential areas as well as businesses and industries.
But the monsoon season has not yet peaked, and experts will need more data before the financial consequences of the floods can be determined later.
Based on current data collected by BencanaBanjir.com, the amount of shared losses has given the group an average loss of RM40K per location. Since many reports still do not have a shared amount of loss, the number is likely to be higher.
BencanaBanjir.com is a good start for Malaysian flood data to be available and more comprehensible, but once again, in addition to allowing evacuation or clean-up efforts to be planned, the public cannot do much else with the data.
It is up to the government and its agencies to use the data and create better frameworks and infrastructure to prevent a recurrence of what happened on 16 December 2021.
- Learn more about BencanaBanjir.com here.
- If you are looking for a fundraiser to alleviate the flood, head on over here. To get an idea of how you can work as a volunteer in flood-prone areas, read on this.
Featured Image Credit: BencanaBanjir.com
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