Dealing with Natural Disasters through Big Data and IoT

Due to the inefficient infrastructure, India has been facing the problem of the natural disaster. Several incidents in 2018 had been recorded such as Kerala floods, Uttarakhand forest fires, Kashmir quakes are the examples of our failures for coping up with these disasters. To mitigate the loss of life advance technologies such as AI, IoT and big data are used.

Disaster Management:

Disaster Management is also called as emergency management lifecycle and is not an easy task to be accomplished. It is a step-by-step and long process which includes identification of risk, preparedness for the disaster, resource allocation, emergency response, disaster recovery. IoT is a boon for us in identifying the natural disaster in every stage.

How does it Work?

IoT can be used with embedded systems and should run even low power devices such as Bluetooth.It is powered by LTE/LTE-A and comprises telecom network with IoT software Platform. For bringing the industrial application to deliver better results, device vendors, application providers, network providers, platform providers and end user come together.

Cloud is providing the service of storage backup for IoT devices which helps in launching and storing of applications. Social media world around the world helps to record and share the videos at any time and anywhere. This helps to keep the updates about every incident happening around. With the help of Big data, we can analyze the critical data and can use it for real-world cases.

Existing Problem:

A major hurdle for India is the communication infrastructure which makes IoT a reality. When compared to China and other developed countries, India is lagging in the telecom industry. This is because private players dominate the Telecom Industry in India, whereas China’s is undertaken by the government. There are few examples of India’s slow progress towards IoT such as National Optical Fiber Network and sluggish 4G momentum. India struggles because of challenging demographics and lack of favorable policies.

Majority of the developing countries are experimenting with 5G technology, whereas India is not even starting the conversation regarding it. The main reason behind that is the cost of the spectrum. There are other challenges such as Right of Way(RoW), which needs to be addressed urgently. Another big concern is the cybersecurity which needs to be addressed ASAP. The development of India is totally dependent on 5G technology, which is the backbone of IoT.

Things need to be Done:

NASA and NOAA are the best examples of IoT development. We can predict the location of the storm, coordinate with the law enforcement and first responders to be prepared in any case with the help of satellite imaginary, sensor data and surveillance. They identified staging locations and evacuation routes, collecting data from sensors and meters, which were mined throughout the region and subsequently with the help of machine learning algorithms, prediction patterns and results. Big companies like Microsoft, Google, Dell EMC are making vast amount contribution as relief fund which will play a crucial role during the time of disasters.

What’s the Coda?

By 2020 it was estimated that almost 50 billion devices will be connected via IoT. The reach will be estimated to reach $6.2 trillion by 2025. Rapid technological innovations in a cost-effective manner are responsible for it. Several years ago, we have seen mobility, social media, cloud, analytics, etc. Significantly serves cross-industry IT containerization. Soon, we will see this technology transformed into an IoT-controlled ecosystem that can save millions of lives during a disaster.

It is almost impossible to spread awareness and educate the people about the rapid technological innovations. They have to be conscious of the climatic changes and tackling them. With the help of Big Data and IoT, it is possible for us to face them intelligently.

Massive amount of data will be left behind by every disaster. We can plan activities for a natural disaster by garer, managing and analyzing them. To overcome the current challenges and to stay prepared for the future, accelerating the operations and developing a smart strategy along with the technology is required.

Big data case study:

In response to the increasing prevalence of severe forest fires, the National Center for Atmospheric Research developed a computer model that simulates weather and fire interactions. Not only does the weather affect fires, the fires we see now create their own weather. Scientists use satellite data to issue new estimates every 12 hours.

IoT case study:

IoT plays a major role in predicting disasters. One example that arises is the earthquake detection and warning effort of the US Geological Society. The system they are working on is called the Earthquake Early Warning system, and there are such systems in Mexico, Taiwan and Japan. In California, they have piloted the EEW prototype, called ShakeAlert, since 2012. Recently, ShakeAlert managed to detect and warn Pasadena residents about a 4.4 magnitude earthquake.