New tool tracks citizens behaviour during haze
New tool tracks citizens behaviour during haze
03 May 2016
published by https://govinsider.asia
Indonesia– Indonesia is testing a dashboard that analyses how people react to a haze crisis.
The Haze Gazer tool built by Pulse Lab Jakarta tracks real-time movement patterns and changes to citizens behaviour when an area is hit by haze.
The dashboard also shows locations of fire and haze hotspots, haze density in populated areas, and where people are most vulnerable.
The tool combines satellite data on haze hotspots with crowdsourced data from social media, the governments complaints system, and news outlets.
It analyses trends on what affected citizens are saying online, such as on the health effects of haze, and the popular hashtags they use.
Officials can also look at haze-related images and videos to get a better picture of what is happening on the ground. These are filtered using image recognition technology and hashtags.
The lab hopes this will help officials target their assistance and come up with better responses during an emergency.
It enables Indonesias local (BPBD) and national (BNPB) disaster management authorities to target their interventions and to align their efforts with those of affected populations, Pulse Lab Jakarta wrote in its blog.
Haze Gazer is being piloted by disaster management officials in Indonesia, and the lab believes it has potential to be scaled across the region.
It is also looking for more information to add to this tool, such as sensor data and government operations strategies. If the Indonesian Government shares its disaster management practices, for instance, the dashboard could analyse whether government actions are in line with citizens needs.
The underlying mechanism of Haze Gazer collecting digital data, analysing it and visualising the insights can be applied to other types of disasters, the lab added.
Heres a demo of how the tool can help officials during a disaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcuH6Mu_CmM#t=84
Tara Singh Sob, 76, of Silgadi feels very strange these days. He had never seen such view of nature ever before. Heavy haze throughout the day in the month of May is what he is finding quite surprising. “Mist was seen in winter morning and evenings. But seeing such mist-like haze during summer is strange, I have never seen this before,” he said.
This year, almost all parts of Doti district are experiencing such uncommon weather. Locals are finding it difficult to carry out their daily activities due to insufficient light even during the day. “It’s very dark all the time. We see sunlight only for a while in day,” said Khadak Bikram Shahi, a businessman from Dipayal. “Though the weather is very hot all the time, we haven’t seen the sun properly for a week now,” he added.
Locals feel that that haze has been due to the recent surge in forest fires in and around the district. Forest fires have been catching up in the region – in the mountain and adjacent Tarai districts. “Perhaps it’s due to smoke released from the forest fires in our and surrounding districts, Narendra Khadka, president of local branch of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) said. “Fire has destroyed most of the forests in the district. You can see literally every forest in the district has been engulfed by fire. It seems that the smoke released from these fires have clouded the atmosphere here,” he said.
The haze has taken toll on public health as well. Locals have been complaining of respiratory problems, headache, irritation in eyes and various skin related problems. Suraj Baldar, assistant doctor at the eye clinic of the District Hospital, informed that numbers of patients visiting the facility has been increasing. “Though we used to see surge in the number of eye patients at this time of the year, this time their number has been quite high, ” he said adding, “The quality of the air has degraded.”
Similarly, Harish Shah, public health monitor at facility pointed that there has been surge in the number of people complaining of respiratory problems. “Even when people are simply sitting or taking rest, they are sneezing time and again. Many find it difficult to breathe,” he said. “Such problem is seen even more in motorcyclists.”
Meanwhile, Min Kumar Aryal, meteorologist in the district said that such atmosphere has been prevalent in most part of the country. “This is not an issue that Doti alone is facing. Other districts are also facing similar circumstances. Forest fire in the western side of the district has worsened air quality here,” he said.
He claims that the haze would subside if it would rain. “Pollution levels in the atmosphere would drop down significantly if it would rain. Normally at this time of year, the district should receive pre-monsoon rain fall. But this year, it has not rained so far. This has escalated pollutant levels in the atmosphere,” he explained. – See more at: http://www.myrepublica.com/society/story/41602/forest-fire-haze-robs-doti-of-sunlight.html#sthash.yqBwgZho.dpuf
