Google Public Alerts Shows Need for Open Data in Disaster Response
Typhoon Soulik is set to hit Taiwan today, and thousands have been evacuated ahead of the strong winds and monster waves that are expected to come with what’s been classified as a super typhoon.
In the midst of the storm, residents now have a new tool to help them stay safe. Earlier this week, Google launched its Public Alerts for natural disasters in Taiwan. When relevant information is entered, severe weather alerts, flood warnings, and information about evacuation routes will appear on the official page, as well as on Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Now.
For instance, if you type “Taipei” in Google Search or Maps during a severe weather warning, information about the alert will be displayed above the search results or right on the Maps screen. If you’re actually in Taiwan during a storm warning, Google Now on your mobile device will pop up a card with information and evacuation instructions.
In addition to the Public Alerts tools, Google launched a dedicated Google Crisis Map for Taiwan that will provide detailed information during emergencies, including the ability to apply various layers of information such as shelter locations, storm radar, and evacuation routes to the map.
The timing of the launch of Google Public Alerts for Taiwan just days before the predicted arrival of Typhoon Soulik was coincidental. Eric Chu, engineering director of Google.org, says the company had planned to make the resource available in mid-summer for the start of Taiwan’s storm season.
Four years ago Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan with unexpected force, killing about six hundred people. The government was criticized for its response, particularly in making sure residents were prepared and understood the severity of the coming storm.
Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said it would update its computer systems and equipment to provide quicker and more accurate forecasts. Chu cites the CWB as a crucial source of data for Google Public Alerts for Taiwan, which also gets information from the Water Resource Agency, Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, the Directorate General of Highways, and the Natural Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction. Due to the cooperation of all these agencies, Google Public Alerts for Taiwan was able to be completed within nine months.
Public Alerts is already available in the United States, Canada, and Japan. Google.org’s challenge is that government agencies often store information in closed formats like PDF files or JPEG images, making it more difficult for researchers to share and analyze data. An open, searchable format would greatly speed up response efforts.
Google.org is promoting the adoption of international standards of web data, particularly the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) for publishing and sharing alerts and the Keyhole Markup Language (KML) for geographic data.
While Taiwan already had a system of SMS, radio and TV alerts in place—which are key for emergency notifications in rural areas with limited Internet access—Chu says using open data standards enables governments to quickly scale up disaster responses and relief coordination.
'Now we are reaching out to other countries to work with their data infrastructure so when a disaster hits, Public Alerts works without additional effort,' says Chu. 'From our perspective, all the information is done so we are monitoring instead of having to scramble to figure out how to use and display the data.'
