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2008, Visual Information Systems. …
In this paper we describe a visualization system for an emergency simulation. We start by presenting a flooding emergency case scenario and all the elements that are involved in it. Then we describe the design decisions that were made in order to create a credible representation of the scene. This includes using a game engine to render the scenario using a three-dimensional terrain, with objects and information retrieved from geographic information systems. Additionally we describe experiments with new touch and tangible devices that support a war table like interaction with the simulation. We further describe our ideas for the emergency interface and conclude describing the directions for future work.
2018
Climate change has serious implications on our environment. Examples of such natural risks are massive rainfalls and the rise of ocean levels. Millions of people are exposed to the risk of extreme floods and storms. It is therefore crucial to develop analytical tools that allow us to evaluate the threats of floods and to investigate the influence of mitigation and adaptation measures, such as stronger dikes, adaptive spatial planning, and flood disaster plans. The objective of our work is to present a flood management system that aims to model and visualize floods. It provides realistic images to help users in understanding and interpreting these disaster scenarios. In order to investigate the applicability in practice, we illustrated the use of our system for real-world data in a case study for the city of Paris, France.
The large and ever-increasing amounts of multidimensional, time-varying and geospatial digital information from multiple sources represent a major challenge for today's analysts. We present a set of visualization techniques that can be used for the interactive analysis of geo-referenced and time sampled data sets, providing an integrated mechanism and that aids the user to collaboratively explore, present and communicate visually complex and dynamic data. Here we present these concepts in the context of a 4 hour flood scenario from Lisbon in 2010, with data that includes measures of water column (flood height) every 10 minutes at a 4.5 m x 4.5 m resolution, topography, building damage, building information, and online base maps. Techniques we use include web-based linked views, multiple charts, map layers and storytelling. We explain two of these in more detail that are not currently in common use for visualization of data: storytelling and web-based linked views. Visual storyte...
EPiC Series in Engineering
Using the Unity3d game engine, a Serious Game has been developed to explore different flooding scenarios under climate change in the town of Torbay in Devon, United Kingdom, and discover the resulting consequences on different critical infrastructures, aiming at enhancing their resilience. The system also sports a rather unique 3D navigable information board comprised of a virtual table populated with documents and interactive post-it notes introducing a compelling narrative.
Low elevation coastal areas are vulnerable to the effects of sea level rise and to an increase in the frequency and severity of storm surge events due to climate change. Coastal urban areas are at risk because coastal flooding causes extensive damage to energy and transportation infrastructure, disruptions to the delivery of services, devastating tolls on the public's health and, occasionally, significant loss of life. Although scientists widely stress the compelling need to mitigate and adapt to climate change, public awareness lags behind. Because WebGIS maps (web-based geographic information systems) quickly convey strong messages, condense complex information, engage people in issues of environmental change, and motivate personal actions, this paper focusses on searching the ideal flood assessment WebGIS method to encourage people to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Surveys demonstrated that 3D visualisations have an enormous added value because they are more vivid and therefore more understandable and make it easier to imagine the consequences of a flood than 2D visualisations. In this research, the WebGIS will be created using Ol3-Cesium and open layers to visualise a flood event by dynamic layers in a 2D/3D environment.
2007
Visualization of large realistic forests, various countries, floods, fire spreads and landslides is very difficult and requires using of perfect modern graphic methods which allow rendering them as scenes in real time. This paper describes the creation of 3D visualization tool for visualization of natural disasters. A lot of international projects oriented on natural disasters utilise grid computing and within grid solution raises requirement of visualization service for presentation of the results. Such service requires unified standards like integration of input data formats and especially creation of unified visualization tool. It should integrate visualization requests of any kind of application oriented on computing of natural disasters. In case it is grid computing it has to be established also submit workflow, which controls execution of this visualization service. Development of all executable modules and solution of all above mentioned grid computing specific problems was subject of our scientific work presented in this article. The 3D visualization tool as well as submit workflow were tested on the applications solved in project MEDIGRID and on natural disasters applications solved in our institute [12].
2008
This paper presents a simulation engine we implemented to support an interactive emergency simulation game. We first discuss various issues on building serious (non-entertainment) games involving the simulation of real life situations. The discussion also considers the use of geographical information systems and dynamic modeling techniques. Then, we present the architecture of the simulation engine and discuss the main aspects regarding its application to emergency plans. Finally, we briefly describe a prototype built to validate the proposed architecture and the requirements raised in the discussion.
International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering, 2019
Flood disaster is a national disaster that takes a lot of victims and material for now. The government nationally implements short-term programs to anticipate disasters by supporting the various government and private institutions in developing disaster mitigation systems to reduce sustainable casualties. Based on this support, this research aims to develop a flood monitoring information system by implementing a real-time flood visualization system. System development is done by making two systems, namely hardware-based flood detection systems that are used as client systems and software-based flood monitoring information systems as servers. Flood detection systems are built using ultrasonic sensors, temperature sensors, rain sensors, Arduino microcontrollers, and Sim900A GSM modules. On the flood monitoring information system server using the Xampp component as a server application and Gammu as an SMS application. The communication system between the two systems uses the SMS Gatewa...
2017
The work presented in this paper was partially funded by the ongoing H2020 EC project EU-CIRCLE (2015-2018), GA 653824.
2016
Human civilization always used to settle near water sources, such as rivers, lakes and seas. But, beside the vast benefits that these regions offer, they sometimes present a huge threat of flooding the inhabited areas, when even the human life could be endangered. Thus, a systems that would offer an early information about the flood state of an endangered region is crucial for all the inhabitants, so they can base their quick actions on real and accurate data and not only on certain speculations. This paper presents a low cost solution that offers precise information about a flooded (or high risk) region using current web technologies. The system presents mapped data visualizations that show the position, the water level and the time of the last condition of multiple marked map points representing the flood sensors placement.
Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 2015
Developing strategies to mitigate or to adapt to the threats of floods is an important topic in the context of climate changes. Many of the world's cities are endangered due to rising ocean levels and changing precipitation patterns. It is therefore crucial to develop analytical tools that allow us to evaluate the threats of floods and to investigate the influence of mitigation and adaptation measures, such as stronger dikes, adaptive spatial planning, and flood disaster plans. Up until the present, analytical tools have only been accessible to Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change domain experts, as the involved simulation processes are complex and rely on computational and data-intensive models. Outputs of these analytical tools are presented to practitioners (i.e., policy analysts and political decision-makers) on maps or in graphical user interfaces. In practice, this output is only used in limited measure because practitioners often have different information requirements or do not trust the direct outcome. Nonetheless, literature indicates that a closer collaboration between domain experts and practitioners can ensure that the information requirements of practitioners are better aligned with the opportunities and limitations of analytical tools. The objective of our work is to present a step forward in the effort to make analytical tools in flood management accessible for practitioners to support this collaboration between domain experts and practitioners. Our system allows the user to interactively control the simulation process (addition of water sources or influence of rainfall), while a realistic visualization allows the user to mentally map the results onto the real world. We have developed several novel algorithms to present and interact with flood data. We explain the technologies, discuss their necessity alongside test cases, and introduce a user study to analyze the reactions of practitioners to our system. We conclude that, despite the complexity of flood simulation models and the size of the involved data sets, our system is accessible for practitioners of flood management so that they can carry out flood simulations together with domain experts in interactive work sessions. Therefore, this work has the potential to significantly change the decision-making process and may become an important asset in choosing sustainable flood mitigations and adaptation strategies.
2001
A system that builds desktop virtual reality models based on topographic maps and its application to tidal dynamics analysis is shown. The virtual reality model allows the user to explore the scene from any possible point of view, also permitting to alter the level of the sea simulating tides and flooding. Flooded and dry areas are visible at each water level, and the flooding pattern can be assessed.
Three years ago, a terrible de agration happened during the excavation of a subway gallery near Neaples. In this paper we describe the geometric modeling and the visual simulation of some possible settings of the catastrophic event. The geometric models and the visual simulation are currently being developed in PLaSM. Both animation and rendering are performed by a n O p e n Inventor interface which plays animation data generated by the PLaSM interpreter.
2011
Multi-touch interaction has become popular in recent years and impressive advances in technology have been demonstrated, with the presentation of digital maps as a common presentation scenario. However, most existing systems are really technology demonstrators and have not been designed with user requirements in mind. This paper will report on ongoing activities in a user centred approach to the use of large multi-touch displays to support disaster managment applications. Building on the detailed analysis of user requirements in real-world tasks, the focus is on the design of presentation and interaction styles that exploit the potential of large scale multi-touch displays to reduce cognitive workload while monitoring the impacts on usability and ergonomics, including a study of the potential physiological dangers involved in long-term use.
2012
— The access to current and reliable maps and data is a critical factor in the management of disaster situations. Standard user interfaces are not well suited to provide this information to crisis managers. Especially in dynamic situations conventional cartographic displays and mouse based interaction techniques fail to address the need to review a situation rapidly and act on it as a team. The development of novel interaction techniques like multi-touch and tangible interaction in combination with large displays provides a promising base technology to provide crisis managers with an adequate overview of the situation and to share relevant information with other stakeholders in a collaborative setting. However, design expertise on the use of such techniques in interfaces for real-world applications is still very sparse. We are, therefore, conducting interdisciplinary research with a user and application centric focus to establish real-world requirements, to design new multi-modal ma...
Multi-touch interaction has become popular in recent years and impressive advances in technology have been demonstrated, with the presentation of digital maps as a common presentation scenario. However, most existing systems are really technology demonstrators and have not been designed with real applications in mind. A critical factor in the management of disaster situations is the access to current and reliable data. New sensors and data acquisition platforms (e.g. satellites, UAVs, mobile sensor networks) have improved the supply of spatial data tremendously. However, in many cases this data is not well integrated into current crisis management systems and the capabilities to analyze and use it lag behind sensor capabilities. Therefore, it is essential to develop techniques that allow the effective organization, use and management of heterogeneous data from a wide variety of data sources. Standard user interfaces are not well suited to provide this information to crisis managers....
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2016
Modelling and communicating scientific data are paramount in Disaster planning, yet is not easily communicated and interpreted by non-expert stakeholders. These stakeholders are important to the disaster response planning because they can provide firsthand experience and knowledge not capture by quantitative methods. This project aimed to develop a method for catching the attention of community members and engaging them in disaster preparation discussions around real data. A scale model visualisation tool was developed that allows users to interact with flood levels and visualise the impact on their community. Using an "in the wild" Human Computer Interaction (HCI) field trial approach, we found community members engaged in self-directed discussions with strangers about the mitigation of floods and the current zoning of new housing estates in flood prone areas. TerrainVis has helped residents understand the significance of disaster preparation and changed perspectives on evacuation plans by situating them within the data.
Electronics
Flood management and media production planning are both tasks that require timely and sound decision making, as well as effective collaboration between professionals in a team split between remote headquarter operators and in situ actors. This paper presents an extended reality (XR) platform that utilizes interactive and immersive technologies and integrates artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to support the professionals and the public involved in such incidents and events. The developed XR tools address various specialized end-user needs of different target groups and are fueled by modules that intelligently collect, analyze, and link data from heterogeneous sources while considering user-generated content. This platform was tested in a flood-prone area and in a documentary planning scenario, where it was used to create immersive and interactive experiences. The findings demonstrate that it increases situation awareness and improves the overall performance of the professionals...
We present a visualization tool for the real-time analysis of interactively steered ensemble-simulation runs, and apply it to flooding simulations. Simulations are performed on-the-fly, generating large quantities of data. The user wants to make sense of the data as it is created. The tool facilitates understanding of what happens in all scenarios, where important events occur, and how simulation runs are related. We combine different approaches to achieve this goal. To maintain an overview, data are aggregated and embedded into the simulation rendering, showing trends, outliers, and robustness. For a detailed view, we use informationvisualization views and interactive visual analysis techniques. A selection mechanism connects the two approaches. Points of interest are selected by clicking on aggregates, supplying data for visual analysis. This allows the user to maintain an overview of the ensemble and perform analysis even as new data are supplied through simulation steering. Unexpected or unwanted developments are detected easily, and the user can focus the exploration on them. The solution was evaluated with two case studies focusing on placing and testing flood defense measures. Both were evaluated by a consortium of flood simulation and defense experts, who found the system to be both intuitive and relevant.
In order to handle disasters, save human lives, and reduce damages, it is essential to have quick response times, good collaboration and coordination among the parties involved, as well as advanced techniques, resources, and infrastructure. The current response to disaster is inefficient and sometimes poorly organized. Various studies, research, and analyses have helped clarify needs, understand failures, and improve technology and organizational procedures. One of the major bottlenecks mentioned in many reports is communication between different parties involved in managing a disaster. The lack of a good overview of the locations of teams, personnel, and facilities or insufficient information about the tasks needing to be completed may lead to misunderstanding and errors. Many command and control systems have been developed to aid the decision-making process, but these systems generally require well-trained personnel. This chapter discusses a series of usability investigations completed on a new type of hardware called a ‘tangible table’ for sharing information and decision-making during emergency responses. The tangible table offers a simple user interface that can be manipulated with human fingers. The interface is intuitive and easy to understand and use. This chapter presents the technology and discusses the interface and the usability tests that have been carried out with different groups of users. The results of these tests show convincingly that the system is highly appropriate for a broad group of non-technical users.
Proceedings of the 2011 Symposium on Theory of Modeling & Simulation: DEVS Integrative M&S Symposium, 2011
We introduce a method to integrate Cell-DEVS models with DEVS-based robotic agents and an advanced Immersive environment for Emergency Management. The emergency is handled by an autonomous robot controlled by a real-time DEVS model. The model controlling the robot interacts with a simulation for emergencies, receiving realtime data about its location on a cell space. The immersive environment is used to visualize the emergency and its management. The simulation results of both the cell-DEVS emergency model and the DEVS-based robotic first responder are visualized dynamically at real-time. The goal is to show how to integrate cellular modeling in a real-time platform and the DEVS formal framework as a collaboration mechanism. The real-time visualization allows for supervisory control of the emergency and first responders activities.
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