Questions/Answers

One of the main causes of this differentiated impact of disasters is late accessibility to disaster-related information with traditional methods such as using printed maps and documents, phone calls, etc. Furthermore, bureaucracy has a very negative impact to share information and documents just after any disaster. For example, when the earthquakes occurred in Gölcük/Yalova in 1999 and in Erciş/Van in 2011, thousands of residents who could not reach communication utilities were unaware of what was happening in the disaster area and were unable to reach food and shelter materials. Senior executives struggled to make decisions in the management of the earthquake because they did not have accurate and up-to-date information about the disaster, and as a result, many people died or were injured. Our project ‘Disaster Management Decision Support System (AYDES)’ aims to provide accurate and current disaster and emergency data, reports, statistics, job inspections, queries, analyses, etc. at every stage before and after the disaster. This project tries to achieve the goal through five main activities: 1) coordinating public institutions, NGOs using state-of-the-art computer technology in the event of a disaster; 2) using up-to-date and accurate data to make effective decisions in a short time; 3) managing crises in the event of disasters to reach those who suffer from disasters, to meet their needs in the shortest time and from the closest resources; 4) carrying out pre-disaster planning and post-disaster recovery activities in an integrated manner with the participation of relevant public institutions; 5) increasing disaster awareness at the national level by providing training on disasters. In this way, this project provides an equal opportunity for all community members to gain disaster-related information and reduce the impacts of disasters.

Institutions and NGOs who have been using this project for six years can respond to disasters rapidly and effectively and enhance their public service deliveries in times of disasters and crises. This project also ensures them to prepare strategic plans before crises and to recover quickly and effectively after crises. This project uses new technologies such as “Internet of Things”, “Machine Learning”, “Responsive Interfaces”, “Full-Stack Development”, “Free and Open Source Libraries”.

Regarding SDG (1.5), our project has significantly contributed to reducing the exposure and vulnerability of the disaster victims to the economic, social, and environmental shocks of disasters. Two of the concrete examples to these contributions were the flood in Giresun and the earthquake in İzmir in 2020 where satellite/airborne images were analyzed and vector data of damaged buildings were shared at the web portal of this project so that the users decided how to respond to these disaster crises. Related to SDG (11.5), this project significantly reduced the number of deaths and the number of people affected by disasters and decreased direct national economic losses. One of the concurred examples of this reduction was the flood in Edirne in 2015 where high-resolution images were analyzed and the data of flooding area were shared at the web portal of this project. Regarding SDG (11.b) this project has been used to finalize National Disaster Response Plan of Turkey (TAMP) which was prepared manually before. This plan implements integrated polices and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters in line with SFDRR 2015-2030 at all levels.

Turkey is a disaster-prone country. Most of the natural hazards that we face are earthquakes, which are followed by landslides, floods, rock falls, etc. There are approximately 966 dead and 2318 injured persons due to natural disasters within the last 5 years. Pre-, post- and during disasters all public institutions and NGOs in Turkey need to make accurate and effective decisions on risk reduction, preparedness, responding, and recovery processes sharing up-to-date and accurate information. This need makes our project sustainable in social, economic, and environmental terms.

Frequent natural disasters are the reality of Turkey. Since the risk reduction, preparedness, response, and recovery processes are performed in a complex and uncoordinated way, some people need to be rescued die, or are injured. The complexity and coordination problem was solved by our project by integrating the entire disaster management processes at one platform AYDES as a ‘Disaster Management One-Stop’. Using this project, more disaster victims were reached and rescued, especially by enabling response teams to carry out effective search and rescue activities.

This project contributes to reducing the differentiated impact of disasters on men and women by offering equal access to disaster information regardless of gender. The project ensures the participation of all people, regardless of gender, in all stages of the disaster, and enables the rescue of living creatures (regardless of human gender and animal discrimination), as well.

The target groups of our project are public institutions and NGOs as well as disaster victims. Using the project public institutions and NGOs make effective decisions on preparing disaster plans, responding, and recovering disasters. Disaster victims are accessed in a short time by rescue teams who are using our project. In addition, the project ensures that they receive regular food, shelter, and cash aid after a disaster.

In 2009, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) was established by merging three different public institutions operating in the fields of disaster and crises. Efforts to integrate disaster management processes with traditional (manual) methods and gather them under the single authority (AFAD) continued until 2012. During this period, the National Disaster Response Plan (TAMP) was prepared and put into effect. Although disasters are managed according to a certain plan (TAMP), the processes of accessing up-to-date and accurate disaster information and ensuring coordination between institutions took a considerable period. This has negatively affected the management of disasters. Especially the 2011 Van earthquake can be cited as an example of these negative effects. Having these problems into consideration, this project was initiated in 2012 to accelerate disaster management processes and to improve coordination with current and accurate disaster information. The development process of the system AYDES took two years. At the end of this period, the project was implemented at the national level by AFAD. Considering the needs encountered during the implementation, improvements, and additions were made to the system especially after the Edirne flood disaster in 2015.

The primary obstacle was to adopt the traditional procedures of disaster management to the digital environment. The secondary issues were connecting the procedures for different phases of disasters and crises to each other and meeting the constantly changing not overlapping requirements of the users of the system. To overcome those obstacles, we defined user experiences by creating Business Process Management (BPM) diagrams, got the approval of the users, and designed user-friendly graphical user interfaces of the system.

This project brought together the institutions responsible for disaster management, which were previously unable to come together in a physical environment, in a digital environment. More importantly, before AYDES, due to several reasons (political, security, legal, administrative ones) institutions were not able to share their geographic data & information related to disasters & crises. However, AYDES provided them the ability to share all those data & information even in the digital environment without hesitating for any reason.

With AYDES, local governments have standardized their disaster response plans at the national level. Cooperation and resource sharing among local governments, municipalities, and institutions have increased. Monitoring the up-to-date status of disaster victims and aids in the internet environment. AYDES has ensured that post-disaster recovery works are carried out quickly and in a controlled manner.

Using the location information obtained automatically from the recovery teams (Internet of Things: IoT), the appropriate teams are selected and directed to the disaster area via SMS and e-mail (Artificial Intelligence: AI). Meteorological sensor data, traffic information, locations of materials are also integrated (IoT). Open data web services from Open Street Map, NASA forest fires, EUMETSAT, EFFIS, etc have been integrated into AYDES (open data). Using the information obtained from previous disasters (population and facilities affected, size of settlements, type & amount of materials needed, etc.), it is possible to make predictions for possible future disasters (AI).

This project has not been transferred and/or adapted to other contexts.

Since the project uses free and open-source software (FOSS) and software libraries as well as developed in an open-source integrated development environment (IDE), it can be transferred, fully or partially adopted to all organizations and NGOs working on disaster and crisis management at the national and global levels.

The projected costed to AFAD $4 million (ca.). More than 20 people (project manager, geospatial database administrator, system analysists, system architecture, UX/UI specialists, software developers, software testers, GIS/RS specialist, and consultants).

During the use of the project, new emergency and disaster needs and accordingly new demands ensure the institutional continuity of the project. The possibility of tender priorities of AFAD and the continuity of needs to requirements for the disaster & crises ensure financial continuity in Turkey.

Yes

During the disaster & crisis practices carried out four times annually, the project has been evaluated by the disaster & emergency teams of AFAD in every city in Turkey. The governmental institutions and NGOs also evaluate the AYDES system once a year during the national disaster & emergency practice performed at Crises Management Center in AFAD.

The indicator used to evaluate the project are the response time to the requirements, the completeness and currency of the information, uninterrupted operation. The tools used for the evaluation are the online forms of AYDES.

The main findings of the evaluation were that there was a considerable need for a fast internet speed and bandwidth, some information was not complete and/or current and heavy load to servers that causes rare system interruptions.

The main duty of AFAD agency is to coordinate all national governmental institutions and NGOs during disaster and emergency management. Thus, the AYDES system is operated and updated within- and by AFAD. AYDES also constitutes the informatics infrastructure of the TAMP plan prepared under the responsibility of AFAD.

The "disaster and emergency working groups" included in the TAMP plan and composed of representatives of all governmental institutions use the AYDES system while performing their duties. For example, health services that need to be provided to those who suffer during disasters are provided by the Ministry of Health experts assigned within the scope of the TAMP plan, using the interface dedicated to them on AYDES. Like all working groups, the working group health records their work during and after the disaster using the reporting module of the AYDES system. The project, AYDES, is designed to be used in the management of all national and regional disasters. For this reason, public institutions and organizations, non-governmental organizations, and local administrations that are involved in disaster management at both regional and national levels are included in the software. Stakeholders at the national level are the ministries, NGOs, and telecommunication companies. Stakeholders at the local level are city & district governors, city & district municipalities, local NGOs, and local volunteers, as well.

All systems to be developed for disaster and crisis management should have the following capabilities: • being independent of the location (mobilized), • being accessible 24/7 by all users and stakeholders, • user-friendly interfaces, • providing a summary and detailed information when requested, • reporting every data in a structured way, • automating transactions AFAD as the developer and the operator of the AYDES system plans to develop modules for disaster & emergency modeling & simulation, early warning, monitoring people's movements during disaster & emergency by utilizing GSM’s CDR data and integrate all these modules into the AYDES.