Response of OSGeo Japan with other comunities to the Great East Japan Earthquake

Session Type: 
Tech Session
Presenter(s): 
Dr. Daisuke Yoshida, Tezukayama Gakuin University
OSGeo Japan

At 2:46PM, 11th, March 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck the Tohoku region. After a half hour, huge tsunamis affected a wide range of coastal areas of the eastern Japan and caused tremendous damage. Loss of life in the disaster region and vast damage to lifeline and infrastructure were reported even in places as far as the Japanese capital, Tokyo. Fortunately, data communication line of 3G was mostly available in some parts of affected areas. Social media services such as Twitter, SNS and other communication tools, were effectively used for contacting people like disaster victims, volunteer workers and also local/ national governments. These services not only contributed to emergency communications, but also to provide collaboration platforms for responding disaster relief as quickly as possible.
 
A team of volunteers from the OSGeo and other communities such as OpenStreetMap in Japan and some from overseas got together to provide support for relief and rescue with in a few hours of the disaster. Many initiatives using FOSS4G technologies were started  after the crisis across nations and various communities. This presentation describes how online-volunteers, mainly OSGeo Japan team, responded to the crisis.
 
  • How FOSS4G tools were used and the problems encountered and addressed. 
  • How software and data were customized  for the relief works.
  • Collaborative efforts of online-volunteers and other communities.
 
Following initatives are explained,
  • Crowdsourcing for translation of placenames, translation of software, manuals and user guides
  • Geo-referencing high-resolution orthophoto images.
  • Providing WMS access to geo-referenced satellite images
  • Handling a large number of access by making use of Cloud platform
  • Setting up of storage server for exchange of large volume of data
  • Distribution of OSGeo software and data and training to concerned agencies and individuals involved in relief and rescue.
 
The presentation will also discuss future efforts that are planned for speedy recovery and encourage resilience amongst the communities.

Speaker Bio: 

Dr. Daisuke Yoshida is affiliated with Tezukayama Gakuin University, a board member of OSGeo-Japan Chapter and an organizer for FOSS4G-Osaka annual events.

Schedule info

Time slot: 
Fri, 09/16/2011 - 10:30am - 11:00am
Room: 
Tower Court B