Location Based Early Disaster Warning and Evacuation System on Mobile Phones

Published on Sep 03, 2023

Abstract

This paper describes the development and implementation of a location based service for disaster evacuation routes. Based on the position of the mobile phone the system provides a real-time calculation for an escape route out of the hazard zone. A smartphone application visualizes the route on a map. Nowadays, disaster hazard zones are well known and determined with complex simulation models.

Evacuation routes in such hazard zones are mostly sign posted along roads and visualized in evacuation plans. People who are inside a disaster hazard zone have to make themselves familiar with the evacuation plans and have to find their own way out of the zone. The developed concept shows the possibility of a location based service to determine an escape route and visualize the result on a map. In addition, the route is the shortest possible way out of the zone. The concept is implemented for a test area. The developed prototype consists of three tier architecture.

The mobile Android application (client) determines the position of the smartphone and is responsible for the visualization of the result. A calculation program on the server side calculates the shortest route out of the hazard zone. The necessary data for this calculation come from a spatial data base which is the third component in this architecture. The whole system allows the user to calculate an escape route out of the hazard zone at the touch of a button. Implemented in an existing disaster warning application it would be a life-saving service.

EXISTING SYSTEM:

In disaster prone areas Early Disaster Warning and Evacuation System is very common disaster management approach. Now a day’s mobile phones play important role for disaster management in many ways: monitoring, communication, warning dissemination, evacuation and rescue and relief aid. Moreover, the approach of smart phones supporting GSM functions beneficial in disaster management. Until now many researchers have conducted decent number of researches about early disaster management system.

DISADVANTAGES OF EXISTING SYSTEM:

Short Message Service (SMS) is used to collect the upcoming flood warning and send back to all citizens from the server. But lots of SMS transfer can cause the network congestion which may lead to breaking of the voice call communication through the same network.

This can make the evacuation process difficult.

PROPOSED SYSTEM:

Natural Disasters have threatened mankind since history started. Due to geographic position and climate change, India is one of most vulnerable countries to natural disasters. The country also lacks effective disaster preparedness system to confront natural disasters. Timely disaster warning and evacuation guideline can save lives of the people. In addition, a tourist or a blind people may face difficulties in finding safe area or shelter place prior to the occurrence of natural disasters. For this reason, we have proposed a location based early disaster warning and evacuation system.

The system is implemented on android mobile phone because of the burgeoning growth of smart phones. So, our system comprises a third-party server named Disaster Management Server (DMS), android device with our application installed on it and user. The local weather office updates the disaster (tsunami, cyclone or flood) data on DMS. Device user registers on Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) server to get automatic notification of upcoming disaster otherwise user gets manual notification.

The user communicates with DMS to have updated data sending the current position obtained by GPS or network provider. The probable disaster affected area is determined by ray casting algorithm. When our application recognizes the user in probable disaster zone then application will disseminate visual and audio disaster warning and evacuation guideline including shortest path of shelter or safe zone on the map of the application. Evacuation progress is also tracked using DMS and national identification of user. The experimental result demonstrates the effectiveness of our system.

ADVANTAGES OF PROPOSED SYSTEM:

User using our proposed system will get early upcoming disaster warnings with the help of both audio and visual message with shortest path of the safe place.

The national id of the user is stored in the internal storage of the mobile phone which is sent to DMS later on.

Regional evacuation control authority keeps track of the evacuation progress with the help of DMS which accelerate the evacuation process and the stored national id of the user.

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

Location Based Early Disaster

MODULES:

1. Location Tracking of Victim

2. Disaster Warning

3. Define Evacuation Points in the City

4. Victim Notification

5. Cloud to Device Messaging

MODULE DESCRIPTION:

1. Location Tracking of Victim:

System gets initialized and detects the current position of the user’s mobile & fetches the location latitude and longitude using android phone’s GPS Device. Device then connects to Google map to get location name from the current position of the mobile.

2. Disaster Warning:

The Server sends disaster warning through Google cloud server to intended users using Internet. Server needs a connection with Google cloud server and messages are push type of messages. It is the responsibility of admin to send fire/flood/earthquake/political warnings to users.

3. Define Evacuation Points in the City:

Whenever Admin declares a disaster warning, he has to define evacuation areas in the city. People will get the evacuation area list on their phone and nearest area from the current place will b highlighted.

4. Victim Notification:

Whenever there is a disaster, user gets the notification on the phone. Notification consists of disaster details and evacuation areas. User can click on each area and view the roadmap on Google map.

5. Cloud to Device Messaging:

Server can send data from Server Machines to their application on the Android Device. Device will show these messages in type of a Broadcast Message to all the cloud connected devices.