Flood Prevention and Emergency Response System Powered by Google Earth Engine
"> Figure 1
<p>The formation and destruction of a barrier lake located upstream of the Qishan River, by comparing the Formosat-2 images acquired on (<b>a</b>) 15 November 2008; (<b>b</b>) 23 February 2010; (<b>c</b>) 16 April 2011; and (<b>d</b>) 28 June 2012.</p> "> Figure 2
<p>Illustration of the feasibility of mapping the inundated areas with a low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). (<b>a</b>) One of the 74 high-spatial-resolution photographs taken by an UAV in Minxiong, Chiayi County in Taiwan on 29 August 2013. The boundary of the inundated area caused by Typhoon Kong-Rey can be clearly delineated from these photographs; and (<b>b</b>) the seamless, color-balanced, and georeferenced mosaic was published on Flood Prevention and Emergency Response System (FPERS) in dual-window mode (left: before-flood; right: after-flood) within 24 h.</p> "> Figure 3
<p>Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image of I-Lan County taken by COSMO-SkyMed 1 on 8 August 2015 (Typhoon Soudelor) publish on FPERS in dual-window mode. Left window: overlaid with the inundated areas (red polygons); right window: overlaid with the inferred flood depth based on a comparison between the flood extent map and different inundation potential maps. The unit shown in legend is meter.</p> "> Figure 4
<p>Application of typhoon forecasts and archives provided by FPERS for Typhoon Nepartak (8 July 2015). (<b>a</b>) The official forecast provided by the Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan; (<b>b</b>) the forecasts provided by National Meteorological Center (NMC) of China Meteorological Administration (CMA) (red), Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) (green), Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) (blue), and Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) (grey); (<b>c</b>) FPERS compared this forecast with all historical paths in the archive, which indicates that Typhoon Bilis (21 August 2000) had the closest path; (<b>d</b>) the disasters caused by Typhoon Bilis in the past served as a good reference from which to evaluate the possible disaster regions that would potentially be caused by Typhoon Nepartak.</p> "> Figure 5
<p>Meteorology data integrated using FPERS for Typhoon Nepartak (8 July 2015). (<b>a</b>) Real-time rainfall data transmitted from 916 rainfall stations at 10-min intervals; (<b>b</b>) the totals for basin, watershed, and administrative area rainfall; (<b>c</b>) the one-hour, three-hour, six-hour, twelve-hour, twenty-four-hour, and daily accumulative rainfall; (<b>d</b>) a user-friendly function to facilitate searches, queries, comparisons, and sorting with all meteorological products.</p> "> Figure 6
<p>Hydrology data integrated by FPERS for Typhoon Nepartak (8 July 2015). (<b>a</b>) Zoom into Taipei; (<b>b</b>) hydrograph of water level at the Chen-Lin bridge river station (Label 1); (<b>c</b>) hydrograph of water level at the Hsin-Hai bridge river station (Label 2); (<b>d</b>) hydrographs of precipitation at the Damsui tide station (Label 3).</p> "> Figure 6 Cont.
<p>Hydrology data integrated by FPERS for Typhoon Nepartak (8 July 2015). (<b>a</b>) Zoom into Taipei; (<b>b</b>) hydrograph of water level at the Chen-Lin bridge river station (Label 1); (<b>c</b>) hydrograph of water level at the Hsin-Hai bridge river station (Label 2); (<b>d</b>) hydrographs of precipitation at the Damsui tide station (Label 3).</p> "> Figure 7
<p>Auxiliary CCTV data integrated using FPERS for Typhoon Nepartak (8 July 2015). (<b>a</b>) Single window mode and (<b>b</b>) multi-window mode.</p> "> Figure 8
<p>Disaster alerts integrated by FPERS for Typhoon Nepartak (8 July 2015). (<b>a</b>) The yellow or red alerts for debris flow issued by the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB); (<b>b</b>) the notice of road and bridge closures issued by the Directorate General of Highways (DGH); (<b>c</b>) the river water level warnings issued by the Water Resource Agency (WRA); (<b>d</b>) the reservoir discharge warnings issued by the WRA.</p> "> Figure 8 Cont.
<p>Disaster alerts integrated by FPERS for Typhoon Nepartak (8 July 2015). (<b>a</b>) The yellow or red alerts for debris flow issued by the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB); (<b>b</b>) the notice of road and bridge closures issued by the Directorate General of Highways (DGH); (<b>c</b>) the river water level warnings issued by the Water Resource Agency (WRA); (<b>d</b>) the reservoir discharge warnings issued by the WRA.</p> "> Figure 9
<p>Disaster map published and updated by FPERS at the during-flood stage of Typhoon Nepartak on 8 July 2015.</p> "> Figure 10
<p>Demonstration of how FPERS was employed to support flood prevention and emergency responses for Typhoon Soudelor. (<b>a</b>) The forecasts of the typhoon path made by the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) of Taiwan and other countries when Typhoon Soudelor formed; (<b>b</b>) the most updated forecasts of typhoon paths overlaid on the map of pumping machines and flood protection materials when the CWB issued the sea alert. The most updated forecasts of typhoon paths overlaid on the satellite cloud images, the radar echo chart, the accumulated rainfall chart; as well as the Ensemble Typhoon Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (ETQPF) (<b>c</b>) when the CWB issued the land warning; and (<b>d</b>) 12 h before the typhoon landed; (<b>e</b>) SAR image of the I-Lan area acquired by COSMO-SkyMed 3 at 05:56 on August 8. Integration of a large number of geospatial data/layers and real-time monitoring data after landfall; including (<b>f</b>) ETQPF; (<b>g</b>) alert information; and (<b>h</b>) real-time disaster reports.</p> "> Figure 10 Cont.
<p>Demonstration of how FPERS was employed to support flood prevention and emergency responses for Typhoon Soudelor. (<b>a</b>) The forecasts of the typhoon path made by the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) of Taiwan and other countries when Typhoon Soudelor formed; (<b>b</b>) the most updated forecasts of typhoon paths overlaid on the map of pumping machines and flood protection materials when the CWB issued the sea alert. The most updated forecasts of typhoon paths overlaid on the satellite cloud images, the radar echo chart, the accumulated rainfall chart; as well as the Ensemble Typhoon Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (ETQPF) (<b>c</b>) when the CWB issued the land warning; and (<b>d</b>) 12 h before the typhoon landed; (<b>e</b>) SAR image of the I-Lan area acquired by COSMO-SkyMed 3 at 05:56 on August 8. Integration of a large number of geospatial data/layers and real-time monitoring data after landfall; including (<b>f</b>) ETQPF; (<b>g</b>) alert information; and (<b>h</b>) real-time disaster reports.</p> ">
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Flood Prevention and Emergency Response System
2.1. Post-Flood Stage
2.1.1. Optical Satellite Imagery
2.1.2. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Photographs
2.1.3. Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery
2.2. Pre-Flood Stage
2.2.1. Typhoon Forecast and Archive
2.2.2. Disaster Prevention and Warning
- (1)
- Meteorology Data: The rainfall distribution in Taiwan is extremely uneven as a result of the four major mountain ranges in the central region that include more than 200 peaks rising higher than 3000 m. For the same reason, the locations of the 916 rainfall stations in Taiwan are also restricted by topography and transportation (Figure 5a), resulting in sparse observations of rainfall in mountainous areas. To tackle this problem, we followed the same Kriging interpolation approach that the CWB employs to generate the gridded precipitation from the real-time rainfall data transmitted from the 916 rainfall stations at intervals of 10 min. This gridded precipitation was further processed as basin, watershed, and administrative area rainfall, based on the polygons of integration in space (Figure 5b). These products could be further processed to generate the one-hour, three-hour, six-hour, twelve-hour, twenty-four-hour, and daily accumulative rainfall, based on the polygons of integration in time (Figure 5c). All these totals were automatically calculated, stored, and managed through a Microsoft SQL (Structured Query Language) database as the real-time rainfall data were transmitted from the 916 rainfall stations every 10 min. A user-friendly function was developed and implemented in FPERS to facilitate user searches, queries, comparisons, and sorting of all meteorological products (Figure 5d). This function can help decision-makers convert the point precipitation from the 916 rainfall stations into colorful polygons of accumulative rainfall, based on the specified basin, watershed, or administrative area.
- (2)
- Hydrology Data: The WRA is in charge of collecting and archiving most of Taiwan’s hydrology data on a systematic basis. Among these data, the water levels from reservoirs, river stations, and tide stations provide valuable information for flood prevention and emergency response. The intensive precipitation brought by typhoons in the mountainous areas not only raises the water level in reservoirs, but also propagates the peak flow downstream, resulting in the rise of water levels at river stations one by one along the river. The time at which the peak flow arrives at the plain and river mouth can be calculated by simply comparing the hydrographs of different river stations, as shown in the Figure 6b,c. On the other hand, the water level at a tide station is mainly dominated by tides that are predictable, as shown in Figure 6c. Flooding becomes a certainty if the high tide coincides with the peak flow. To make the best use of the hydrology data, a user-friendly function was developed and implemented in FPERS to facilitate the ability of users to display hydrographs by clicking any reservoirs, river stations, or tide stations.
- (3)
- Auxiliary Data: There are many valuable, yet sensitive data that are crucial for disaster prevention and decision-making, such as the most updated map of the status of pumping stations and mobile machines, the available resources and facilities, flood defense materials, the gaps and breaks of levees, flood potential maps, the streaming of real-time video captured and transmitted by CCTVs, and so on. Because of security and privacy issues, we were not able to include these data in FPERS at first, until the WRA purchased the Google Earth Enterprise product that allowed developers to create maps and 3D globes for private use. All sensitive data are hosted by this commercial product and linked to FPERS. To access these data, users must register and login to FPERS; then, another list will be available for selecting and viewing the data. In this manner, the issue of security and privacy was resolved by increasing the amount of auxiliary data that can be integrated in FPERS. Figure 7 presents one example of displaying the streaming of a real-time CCTV video in FPERS in single-window mode and multi-window mode, respectively.
- (4)
- Disaster Alert: Different government agencies issue various disaster alerts, such as the yellow or red alerts for debris flow issued by the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB), notices of road and bridge closures issued by the Directorate General of Highways (DGH), heavy or torrential rain alerts issued by the CWB, and river water level warnings and reservoir discharge warnings issued by the WRA. Thanks to the wide applications of GEE and the standard KML/KMZ (Zipped KML) format, each warning can be dynamically integrated into FPERS by linking to specific KML/KMZ files. As long as the KML/KMZ file is maintained and updated by the provider of the warning, the most updated and complete warnings are accessible in FPERS. Figure 8 presents an example of accessing various disaster alerts in FPERS in the event of Typhoon Nepartak (8 July 2015).
2.2.3. Disaster Events and Analysis
2.2.4. Basic Data and Layers
2.3. During-Flood Stage
2.3.1. Real-Time Monitoring Data
2.3.2. User-Friendly Functions
- (1)
- “Instant Info” would bring up the slideshow window with selected meteorology data, hydrology data, geospatial information data, and disaster alerts.
- (2)
- “Tools” would toggle between the single- and dual-window mode; adjust the transparency of each layer; measure the perimeter or area by drawing a polyline or a polygon on the screen; and pinpoint the location with inputs of coordinates, address, place name, or some key words.
- (3)
- “Clear” would unselect all layers that have been displayed, but keep them in the list. Users can reselect the layers they want in order to avoid too much data overcrowding the screen.
- (4)
- “Reset” would return the view to the entire Taiwan, focalized on its center. The list of all accessed data and layers would be emptied.
2.3.3. Standard Operation Procedure
3. Application of FPERS in Typhoon Soudelor
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Event | Start | End |
---|---|---|
Typhoon Soulik | Sea alert: 11 Jul 2013 08:30 | Land warning: 13 Jul 2013 23:30 |
Land warning: 11 Jul 2013 20:30 | Sea alert: 13 Jul 2013 23:30 | |
Typhoon Trami | Sea alert: 20 Aug 2013 11:30 | Land warning: 22 Aug 2013 08:30 |
Land warning: 20 Aug 2013 20:30 | Sea alert: 22 Aug 2013 08:30 | |
Tropical Storm Kong-Rey | Sea alert: 27 Aug 2013 11:30 | Land warning: 29 Aug 2013 17:30 |
Land warning: 28 Aug 2013 11:30 | Sea alert: 29 Aug 2013 20:30 | |
Typhoon Matmo | Sea alert: 21 Jul 2014 17:30 | Land warning: 23 Jul 2014 23:30 |
Land warning: 22 Jul 2014 02:30 | Sea alert: 23 Jul 2014 23:30 | |
7 August 2014 torrential rain | 7 Aug 2014 | 15 Aug 2014 |
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong | Sea alert: 19 Sep 2014 08:30 | Land warning: 22 Sep 2014 05:30 |
Land warning: 19 Sep 2014 20:30 | Sea alert: 22 Sep 2014 08:30 | |
Typhoon Noul | Sea alert: 10 May 2015 08:30 | Sea alert: 2015-05-11 20:30 |
20 May 2015 torrential rain | 19 May 2015 | 27 May 2015 |
Tropical Storm Linfa | Sea alert: 6 Jul 2015 08:30 | Sea alert: 9 Jul 2015 05:30 |
Typhoon Chan-Hom | Sea alert: 9 Jul 2015 05:30 | Land warning: 10 Jul 2015 23:30 |
Land warning: 9 Jul 2015 20:30 | Sea alert: 11 Jul 2015 11:30 | |
Typhoon Soudelor | Sea alert: 6 Aug 2015 11:30 | Land warning: 9 Aug 2015 08:30 |
Land warning: 6 Aug 2015 20:30 | Sea alert: 9 Aug 2015 08:30 | |
Typhoon Goni | Sea alert: 20 Aug 2015 17:30 | Sea alert: 23 Aug 2015 20:30 |
Typhoon Dujuan | Sea alert: 27 Sep 2015 08:30 | Land warning: 29 Sep 2015 17:30 |
Land warning: 27 Sep 2015 17:30 | Sea alert: 29 Sep 2015 17:30 | |
11 June 2016 torrential rain | 11 Jun 2016 16:00 | 14 Jun 2016 20:00 |
Typhoon Nepartak | Sea alert: 6 Jul 2016 14:30 | Land warning: 9 Jul 2016 14:30 |
Land warning: 6 Jul 2016 20:30 | Sea alert: 9 Jul 2016 14:30 | |
Typhoon Meranti | Sea alert: 12 Sep 2016 23:30 | Land warning: 15 Sep 2016 11:30 |
Land warning: 13 Sep 2016 08:30 | Sea alert: 15 Sep 2016 11:30 | |
Typhoon Malakas | Sea alert: 15 Sep 2016 23:30 | Land warning: 18 Sep 2016 02:30 |
Land warning: 16 Sep 2016 08:30 | Sea alert: 18 Sep 2016 08:30 | |
Typhoon Megi | Sea alert: 25 Sep 2016 23:30 | Land warning: 28 Sep 2016 17:30 |
Land warning: 26 Sep 2016 11:30 | Sea alert: 28 Sep 2016 17:30 | |
Tropical Storm Aere | Sea alert: 5 Oct 2016 11:30 | Sea alert: 6 Oct 2016 14:30 |
Category | Data/layers | Source | Type |
---|---|---|---|
Drainage and flood control | Locations of water gate | WRA | Vector |
Locations of water pumping station | WRA | Vector | |
Sites for flood protection | WRA | Vector | |
Locations of levees | WRA | Vector | |
Locations of dikes/revetments | WRA | Vector | |
Reservoir conservation | Locations of the Water Resources Agency and sub-units | WRA | Vector |
Locations of reservoir dams | WRA | Vector | |
Reservoir storage areas | WRA | Vector | |
Water quality and quantity protection areas | WRA | Vector | |
Water source districts | WRA | Vector | |
Water Resources Office jurisdiction | WRA | Vector | |
Water resources zoning map | WRA | Vector | |
River hydrology | Locations of river stage observation stations | WRA | Vector |
Locations of river flow observation stations | WRA | Vector | |
Locations of sand content observation stations | WRA | Vector | |
Locations of coastal ocean tide stations | WRA | Vector | |
Distribution of Water Resources Agency coastal data buoys | WRA | Vector | |
Locations of coastal ocean weather observation stations | WRA | Vector | |
Rivers (subsidiary basin) | WRA | Vector | |
Rivers (course basin) | WRA | Vector | |
River basin range | WRA | Vector | |
Weather observation | Ensemble Typhoon Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (ETQPF) | CWB | Numerical |
CWB quantitative precipitation forecast (CWBQPF) | CWB | Numerical | |
Himawari-8 satellite images | CWB | Raster | |
Radar echo charts | CWB | Raster | |
Other data/layers | Second generation of inundation potential maps | WRA | Raster |
Flooding survey reports | WRA | Document | |
Topographical maps | NLSC | Raster |
Step | Purpose/Intention | Data/Layers |
---|---|---|
Typhoon formation | Determine whether a typhoon will invade Taiwan |
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Sea alert is issued | Resource dispatching |
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Land warning is issued | Determine the rainfall distribution |
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12 h before landfall | Determine the rainfall distribution |
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Landfall | Latest warnings and information |
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Real-time disaster report | Emergency response |
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Sea alert and land warning are Lifted | Monitoring the rainfall situation after a typhoon |
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Share and Cite
Liu, C.-C.; Shieh, M.-C.; Ke, M.-S.; Wang, K.-H. Flood Prevention and Emergency Response System Powered by Google Earth Engine. Remote Sens. 2018, 10, 1283. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10081283
Liu C-C, Shieh M-C, Ke M-S, Wang K-H. Flood Prevention and Emergency Response System Powered by Google Earth Engine. Remote Sensing. 2018; 10(8):1283. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10081283
Chicago/Turabian StyleLiu, Cheng-Chien, Ming-Chang Shieh, Ming-Syun Ke, and Kung-Hwa Wang. 2018. "Flood Prevention and Emergency Response System Powered by Google Earth Engine" Remote Sensing 10, no. 8: 1283. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10081283