Pitney Bowes: Everyone Should Have Access to Flood Risk Mapping
Paper highlights the need for sophisticated software to become the standard
- Marta Wiacek
- Recognition PR
- Phone: +61 2 9252 2266
- eMail: marta_wiacek@recognition.com.au
Sydney, Australia — December 13, 2011
Town planners, emergency services workers, community members and local governments should have access to the most sophisticated storm event technology on the market to prevent loss of lives and damage to property in the event of a flood, according to Pitney Bowes.
Sean Richards, director of product management for Pitney Bowes Software and author of a recent flood risk white paper said, “With the storm season fast approaching there is no excuse for local governments and water authorities not to implement, and make available, the most detailed flood risk mapping in real time.
“This is particularly relevant for residents in Queensland and Victoria still recovering from the floods that occurred during the storm season at the start of 2011 and for who the devastation remains very fresh.”
Location Intelligence technology can be rapidly deployed to communicate high-risk areas and visualise the community’s exposure in a crisis. More importantly the same technology can be used to help all phases of emergency management including prevention, planning, response and recovery.
The technology employs the revolutionary LiDAR technology, which provides a fast and detailed means of building a digital model of the at risk terrain, critical in determining where flood waters will flow, pool and dissipate.
Richards said, “This is invaluable as it lets planners put in place contingency plans for evacuation well before flood waters have risen to the point where they seriously endanger the community, either through flash flooding causing drowning or through the hazards of submerged electrical outlets.
“The technology should be made available in real time on the Internet to all those in areas likely to be affected so that they can prepare evacuation routes to the nearest shelter centres.
“This is not to say that the same level of data should be available to both households and emergency workers for instance, as each would require tailored information as it applies to them.”
By measuring and mapping where water levels rose to in areas that have severely flooded before and applying this to LiDAR measurements of the terrain, invaluable information can be created and distributed for use in a variety of ways.
For instance, towns can determine where the best shelter centres would be positioned from a height perspective and can also assess whether roads leading to these shelters are prone to flooding, which would mean selecting an alternate location for the shelter.
Richards said, “Mapping software and flooding modelling software have come a long way over the past 10 years and by ensuring the latest technology is in place for flood prone areas, local governments and emergency workers can best plan for the worst and speed up how fast the community can respond in disaster situations.”
The demographics of an area are also very important in fostering community resilience to flooding. Population, age, gender and how many people the structure can hold should all be taken into account when selecting shelter centres. For instance, some elderly residents may have mobility problems and should be a priority for emergency workers. Likewise other groups would also require special attention, such as those in hospitals, nursing homes, schools and those with disabilities.
Calculations should also be in place to estimate how long it may take those affected by a storm event to get to shelters, with alternate routes to be planned for different flood events.
Richards said, “Another aspect for local governments to consider is how to convey the message to those who may not be English speaking. By having this information available at the time of planning evacuation centres, appropriate translation services can be catered for.
“The reality is that flooding is a part of Australian life. Community resilience through awareness and preparation really is key to ensuring that the impact of a natural disaster is less devastating on all those directly and indirectly affected.
Richards added that although floods of the scale seen in early 2011 are categorised as a ‘one in one hundred year event’, it is worth noting that in Victoria alone, major regional flooding occurs somewhere across the state every ten to twenty years.
The National Strategy for Disaster Resilience, launched at the National Floods Forum 2011 on October 6, 2011, called for all Australian governments to do more in identifying, assessing and understanding priority areas of risk, a task that can only be achieved by using the best technology available.
As outlined in a recent statement by Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten and Attorney General Robert McClelland following the final Natural Disaster Insurance Review, a range of recommendations encompassing flood risk management, insurers' claims handling and dispute resolution processes have been made, together with ensuring the adequate provision of flood insurance.
Flood insurance is an essential part of building community resilience. Local authorities, who are best placed to build and sustain community resilience to lasting flood damage, can have a greater impact by ensuring their flood risk analysis is current, detailed and readily available through federal government initiatives to improve access to flood risk data for the insurance industry.
The full Pitney Bowes white paper on flood risk: A paper examining the importance of building community resilience, can be downloaded here.
About Pitney Bowes Software
Pitney Bowes Software (PBS) was formerly Pitney Bowes Business Insight (PBBI).
Pitney Bowes Software provides multichannel solutions that optimise data to create relevant dialogue between organisations and their customers. These solutions enable lifetime customer relationships by integrating data management, location intelligence, sophisticated predictive analytics, rules-based decision making and cross-channel customer interaction management to increase the value of every customer communication while also delivering operational efficiencies.
Pitney Bowes Software is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI), a customer communications management technology leader. For more information, please visit www.pbinsight.com.au.