Implementation of a Web-Based and Cloud-BasedParticipatory GIS System to Certify Property Damage
due to Tsunami
Reo KIMURA/ University of Hyogo

Munenari INOGUCHI/ Niigata University

School of Human Science and Environment,
University of Hyogo
Hyogo, JAPANrkimura@shse.u-hyogo.ac.jp

Research Institute for Natural Hazards and Disaster
Recovery, Niigata University
Niigata, JAPANinoguchi@gs.niigata-u.ac.jp

Keiko TAMURA/ Niigata University

Yuji NAWA/ ESRI Japan

Risk Management Office,Niigata University
Niigata, JAPANtamura@gs.niigata-u.ac.jp

Consulting Services,
ESRI Japan
Kyoto, JAPANyuji_nawa@esrij.com

Haruo HAYASHI/ Kyoto University
Disaster Prevention Research Institute,
Kyoto University
Kyoto, JAPANhayashi@drs.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Abstract—The objective of this research was to develop the cloudbased participatory WEB-GIS system constructing the common
operational picture in order to facilitate the decision-making
process of disaster response. The team set the research aim tocreate the web service of certifying property damage due toTsunami. Using developed service the team conducted thedemonstration experiment to survey to identify buildings thatwere washed away in the three afflicted prefectures of Iwate,
Miyagi, and Fukushima by Tohoku Earthquake.

to altitude in a geographic space to create a big picture ofdamages. We then estimated the number of damaged buildings
in each region alongside the height of the tsunamis in theseregions (as reported by the Japan Meteorological Agency). The
results indicated that 270,000 buildings were damaged in threeprefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima. Figure 1 shows
the results of our information analyses, which were shared withthe disaster response workers.
Estimated flood damage by altitude and simulation by NGA

Keywords-component;; WEB-GIS services; cloud based
collaborative; common operational picutre; builiding inspection

I.

Most tsunami damages occurred inthree prefectures in the Tohoku region
Estimated number of buildings
damaged by the tsunami

INTRODUCTION

High-quality disaster responses can not be provided without
constructing a common operational picture and organic
collaboration among stakeholders. To this end, it is effective tovisualize damages and responses using a Geographic
Information System (GIS), which facilitates decision-making
based on visualized data. In reality, however, during thechaotic days immediately following a disaster, the collection
and consolidation of data for visualization is insufficient. The
absence of data to be visualized hinders our efforts to construct
a common operational picture.
The Tohoku Earthquake on March 11, 2011 generated
massive tsunamis that washed away many buildings. Our
research team initially organized building point data according↓

About 270,000 buildings are needed
to surveyed
Prefectures
LegendFlooding(by NGA)

Altitude 10 m / 5 m or lessAltitude [m]－ 5
5 － 10
10 －

5～10m

～5m

Total

Iwate

14,981

27,82142,802

Miyagi

135,410(70,787)－135,410(70,787)

Fukushima52,603

40,807

93,410Total

202,994(138,371)

68,628271,622(206,999)

Figure 1. Estimated number of buildings damaged by thetsunamis

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319

The Tohoku earthquake tsunami damage judgment system - Management -Legenc
Survey point A (for editing)Not yet surveyed
Completely washed away
Remained

Survey area

Figure 2. Screen design concept for the washed-away building judgment system using a Web-GIS
Under ideal circumstances we would have conducted afield survey to verify the results of our estimate. However,immediately after the earthquake, access to the disaster area
was limited and the survey would have taken a very long time.
These conditions necessitated the development of an efficient
survey method that did not require visits to the fields.

Two categories were created for buildings that were washedaway, either completely washed away or partially washedaway. The purpose of this was to make it easy for aninvestigator to intuitively make a judgment (Figure 3).
Select a judgment
ClickII.

ClickMECHANISMS TO DETERMINE WASHED AWAYBUILDINGS USING WEB-GIS

The aim was to build a system to enable participation fromanywhere in Japan. This requires a good network environment
in order to secure a stable supply of human resources for thequick and efficient execution of the survey. Specifically, we
designed a system to determine whether a building waswashed away or not using the WEB-GIS by superimposing
building data before the earthquake (building data) and aerial
views after the earthquake (Figure 2).
A. Basic Design Concept
1) To determine the judgment patterns for washed-awaybuildings

Click

未調査
Not yetsurveyedCompletely
流失
washed away

残存Remained

Figure 3. Judgment selection for building damage only byclicking2) To identify survey areas by roads
We intersected areas by roads, and each area was assigned a13-digit ID number for each survey area (Figure 4). The 13digit ID number was composed of a city, ward, or "cho"district code (5 digits), flood area code (4 digits), and survey
area code for city, ward, and "cho" (4 digits). This made iteasy to visually identify survey areas, and tally the results
according to governmental jurisdictions.

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320We selected an application that allows the user tobidirectionally interact with the spatial GIS using a webbrowser.
Web browser
Flash Player

Web Application Ａ

Web Application Ｂ

Investigator

A survey area code (13 digits) was assigned–

City, ward, "cho," and village code ( 5 digits)–

Flood area code (4 digits)–

Survey area code for city, ward, "cho," and village ( 4 digits)

Web browser
Flash PlayerWeb

A "survey area ID," which is a polygon serial number, was assigned foradministering judgment work3) To construct a system that allowed the progress of thesurvey to be viewed
Multiple investigators simultaneously conducted a survey
using the WEB-GIS. We installed a feature to visualize theoverall progress of the survey, which we hoped would
motivate the investigators to conduct the survey (Figure 5).
Tally

Tally
Progress A (by survey area)

Judgment results A (by building)

Chart

Chart

Remained

Finished
Not yet processed

Completely
washed away
Not yet surveyed

Not yet processed
FinishedNot yet processed
Completely washed away
Remained

Based on the number of buildings(232,955)

Amazon EC2

Investigator

Figure 4. Code system for surveyed areas

Based on the number of areas(24,110)Figure 5. Tallying function to grasp progress of survey work

B. System Configuration (Figure 6)
Configuration of the web application
environment involved five components.

distribution

1) Cloud infrastructure:
We selected a cloud infrastructure because it offered
flexibility for changing the basic specifications, the ease of
installation of the environment, and the potential for multiple
accesses.
2) Middleware:
We selected a middleware so that many people could
simultaneously access, edit, and process the data over thespatial GIS system.
3) Application:

ArcGIS Viewer for Flex
ArcGIS Server 10

ArcGIS Desktop

Administrator

Figure 6. System Configuration4) Administrator of the web application: The
administrator should be able to manage the progress of thesurvey and conduct a spatial analysis from their local
environment, as well as exchange data with the cloudenvironment.
5) Investigator: Each investigator should have FlashPlayer, which is typically installed on most new personal
computers. This serves as the operating environment for thepersonal computer, network environment, and web application.
III.

SYSTEM VERIFICATION: WASHED AWAY BUILDING
MAPPING PROJECT

A. An overview of the project to verify the system
1) Purpose: To clarify issues that may arise while
conducting the survey, in addition to considering anenvironment to efficiently and effectively tackle futuredisasters.
2) Overview: To conduct a survey to identify buildingsthat were washed away in the three afflicted prefectures ofIwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima (excluding areas affected by anuclear power plant accident because no aerial views wereavailable for those areas). Moreover, to verify theeffectiveness of this mechanism to identify buildings that were
washed away using the WEB-GIS.
3) Investigators: Undergraduate students, graduate
students, and researchers from five research groups indifferent universities were selected to conduct a study related
to disaster prevention and disasters. Two independent
investigators conducted a survey of the same area to verify anagreement between two survey results.
4) Instructions: As instruction manual was prepared and isavailable online at all times.
5) The number of survey points: 232,906

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Table 1. Result of experimentation by two investigators (A and B)
Result: Investigator "B"
Total

Result:Investigator "A"

Completely washed away

Remained

Completely washed away

75,032 (46.0%)

6,027 (3.7%)

81,059 (49.7%)

Remained

8,836 (5.4%)

73,310 (44.9%)

82,146 (50.3%)

83,868 (51.4%)

79,337 (48.6%)

163,205 (100.0%)

Total

Figure 7. An example of area where there was a discrepancy in judgment

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REFERENCES

B. Results of the system verification project1) Verification results 1: The percentage of concordantsurvey results
The overall percentage for concordant surveys conductedby different investigators was 90.9%. This percentage was
highly statistically significant (Χ2(1) = 109305.7, p < .001)(Table 1).
2) Verification results 2: Issues with the dataa) An important issue to keep in mind is that there were
no aerial views of the areas near the Fukushima NuclearPower Plants since airplanes were not allowed to fly overthese areas. Therefore, a survey using this method was notpossible in these areas.

[1]

[2]

S. Suzuki and H. Hayashi, “Spatial Exposure Analysis on Tokyo
Metropolitan Earthquake Disaster,” Journal of Disaster Research, Vol.5,
No.1, pp. 45-53, Feburary 2010.
Y. Nawa, et.al., “Geography Network for Sharing GeospatialInformation in Disaster Management,” Journal of Disaster Research, Vol.
5, No. 1, pp.108-116, Feburary 2010.

b) Differences in the precision of the spatial information
lead to discrepancies between the building information before
the earthquake (building foundation data) and aerial views
after the earthquake. In some instances these data
discrepancies made it difficult to distinguish between abuilding that was in fact washed away and a building thatappeared to be washed away.
3) Verification results 3: Issues in operation managementa) There were differences among the five researchgroups in the way the survey was conducted. Some groups
followed the instructions, while others did not.
b) Comparison of survey results conducted by different
investigators revealed areas with a high degree of agreement
and those with a low degree of agreement. This was likely due
to personal bias in the criteria used by the investigators tomake judgments according to the instructions (Figure 7).
4) Verification results 4: Issues with the system
We realized that it was necessary to develop an interface tominimize human errors in the operation management.
IV.

FUTURE CHALLENGES

Multiple people judged the effectiveness and viability of
the cloud-based participatory WEB-GIS system to certify
building damage due to the tsunamis. Although a web-based
system can increase the participation of investigators, it is often
difficult to guarantee the quality of investigation conducted.
We show that consolidating the judgments of multiple
investigators was an effective means to improve the quality ofinvestigation.
While this system was configured to be a judgment system,
it is possible to adopt it to a wide variety of surveys depending
on how categories are set for judgment and selection; therefore,
it has promise as a highly versatile survey system. We aim tobuild a system with an even higher level of viability by solving
the issues that we found in the areas of data, management, andsystems.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported by JST, PRESTO.

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