DEVELOPMENT OF ANDROID AND WEB APPLICATION FOR DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT THROUGH CROWDSOURCING

Project Members:Arun BhandariNishanta Khanal

SUPERVISORS:MR. SHASHISH MAHARJANMR. UMA SHANKAR PANDAY

JULY 28 , 2014 1

INTRODUCTION

• Disasters:• Natural or human induced• Mostly inevitable • Risk reduction, safety and better rescue is what is necessary

• Location Based Services (LBS):• Services that extract the location information of the people from

GPS enabled devices• Popular, effective and easy to use• Provide the information on where a person is

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BACKGROUND

• Kathmandu valley faces the risk towards severe earthquake damage• Other disasters/ accidents also occur every once in a while• Rapid urban growth with unplanned settlements• Lack of efficient and sufficient emergency service providers

BUT,

The challenge of finding where a victim is trapped or where the rescue service is needed still prevails

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OBJECTIVES

• To develop a system for communication between victims and rescue service operators/ non-victims in a post disaster scenario

• Sub-objectives• To design and develop a database• To enable a system of communication with server containing database• To build a system enabling users to report, view map and call for emergency help• To design user interfaces (android and web) • To design and implement a proper administrative component

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METHODOLOGY

• PLANNING• RESEARCH• SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

• DATABASE CREATION• SERVER BACKEND DEVELOPMENT• WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT• ANDROID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

• TESTING AND DEBUGGING

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DATABASE CREATION

• PostgreSQL was used as DBMS

• PGADMIN III was used as frontend

• Tables were created using PGADMIN III UI and writing SQL

METHODOLOGY -> SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

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SERVER BACKEND DEVELOPMENT

• Server backend development was done by writing PHP scripts

• Apache server was used to run the scripts

• The scripts are designed to be supplied with data using post method

• Scripts were written such that they returned data in JSON or GEOJSON format

METHODOLOGY -> SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

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SERVER BACKEND DEVELOPMENT ( CONTD…)

• Following tools were used• XAMPP to run/emulate and configure APACHE server on our pc

• Notepad++ to write PHP scripts

• Google chrome to test and debug scripts

• Mozilla Firefox to test and debug scripts

METHODOLOGY -> SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

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WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

• Web application was developed using multiple languages• PHP• JS• Html5• CSS 3

• Multiple files were created for different components to make it easy to add and edit components of the web site

• CSS and JS were saved in separate files as well• External libraries were downloaded and used as well as referenced as

required • Graphics and icons that were to be used were created• Testing and debugging

METHODOLOGY -> SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

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WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT (CONTD…)

• Following external libraries were used• BOOTSTRAP 3 • JQUERY • AJAX• LEAFLET• CHARTS.JS• MAPBOX API

• GOOGLE GEOCODING

METHODOLOGY -> SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

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WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT ( CONTD…)

• Following software and tools were used• XAMPP to run/emulate and configure APACHE server on our pc• Notepad++ to write scripts• Google chrome to test and debug web application• Mozilla Firefox to test and debug web application• Photoshop CS6 to create graphics and icons

METHODOLOGY -> SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

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ANDROID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

• Android application was developed using multiple languages• Java• XML

• External libraries were downloaded and added to the build path• Multiple activities were created for the android application• Graphics and icons that were to be used were designed• Offline data to be used was acquired• Testing and debugging was done

METHODOLOGY -> SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

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ANDROID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT(CONTD…)

• Following external libraries were used• Mapsforge• Graphhopper

• Following software were used• Eclipse• Java SDK• Android SDK

METHODOLOGY -> SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

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RESULTS

• DATABASE• SERVER BACKEND• WEB APPLICATION• ANDROID APPLICATION

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•FIVE TABLES:1. user_auth: to store user

information (username, contact, email address, type)

2. reports: to store information each report contains (type, level, description, location, date, etc. )

3. likes: to store the report id, username and vote (yes or no)

4. report_types: to store the type of report

5. emergency: to store information about emergency request (username, location, date, time)

DATABASERESULTS

Fig: Flow Database Schema Design 15

SERVER BACKENDRESULTS

Fig: Flow Diagram of Server Processing

• Scripts written in PHP

• Help in extracting required data from the database according to the client request

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• Clean and easy to use User Interface• Functionalities:

• Map-view• News Feed • Submit new report• Search for nearest Hospital• Find shortest route• Admin components with privileges like

manage users and reports, view statistics, etc.

WEB APPLICATIONRESULTS

Fig: Website Homepage UI

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• Application along with a widget for emergency service request

• Six activities/ screens:• Login Page• Registration Page• News Feed• Map Screen• Disaster Report Page • Disaster Details Screen

• Facility of routing and finding nearest hospital

• Emergency service request possible through widget

ANDROID APPLICATIONRESULTS

Fig: Android Application Splash Screen

Fig: Android Application Map-view 18

DISCUSSION

• Choice of OpenStreetMaps as the base map justifies data acquisition through crowd sourcing

• One click for emergency reporting is helpful to victims

• Users are responsible of validating the reports

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LIMITATIONS

• Android application is platform dependent

• Error in GPS coordinates

• We do not guarantee rescue services, a third party involvement is required

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CONCLUSION

• The initial objectives have been achieved

• The application can be of use to overall disaster resilience in Nepal

• Addition of features such as alerting respondents in the vicinity

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RECOMMENDATIONS• Proper marketing is required as crowd sourcing means nothing if crowd don’t use it

• Working on how to mitigate the damages caused due to hazards

• Involving responsible parties to manage the system and relay information to mass

• Addition of features such as alerting respondents in the vicinity, broadcasting safety tips

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THANK YOU!!visit our website

www.banmedo.heliohost.org/disasteraid Android application download available in the site

SERVER BACKEND DEVELOPMENT (CONTD…)

• AN EXAMPLE GEOJSON STRING{ "type": "featurecollection","features": [{ "type": "feature", "geometry": {"type": "point", "coordinates": [0.0, 0.0]}, "properties": {"name": "point1"} },

{ "type": "feature", "geometry": {"type": "point", "coordinates": [10.0, 10.0]}, "properties": {"name": "point2”}] }

METHODOLOGY -> SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

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