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UP scientists inventing flood warning systems

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abs-cbnNEWS.com | 10/12/2009 10:57 PM

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A sensor that collates rainfall data.

MANILA - Scientists at the University of the Philippines (UP) - Diliman are pitching in on efforts to improve the country's landslide and flood-warning systems.

Dr. Sandra Geronimo-Catane, a respected geo-hazards expert, has clinched funding from the Department of Science and Technology for a 3-year project that seeks to create cheap but effective gadgets for flood and landslide monitoring.

She is currently a professor at the National Institute for Geological Sciences (NIGS). Catane's team includes students from various fields like electrical engineering, civil engineering, and geology.

The group studies how rains affect small mounds of dirt placed in containers in an effort to determine the movement of soil before it erodes.

The experiment also tests the effectivity of a sensor that costs no more than P5,000 - inexpensive compared to other landslide monitoring equipment that cost over P3 million.

At the end of the experiments, the group wants to determine a specific warning level or cut-off level - when soil is about to erode - that automatically triggers a loud siren. This serves as a warning that there will be an imminent landslide.

"We emphasize it to be low-cost and easy to install [becdisause] the alarm would be easy to install. When there is a cut-off already, that would not be very difficult to install a simple siren," Catane said.

Get flood-warnings by text

While Catane's landslide warning system is still in the experimental stage, another group of scientists has already developed a low-cost and effective flood-warning device.

The UP College of Science, with the help of scientists like Dr. Carlos Primo "CP" David of NIGS, has developed a contraption that sends flood warnings via cellphone-like device.

The device's main component is a tipping bucket that collects rain water and measures exactly how fast or slow rain falls via a sensor.

The tipping bucket is hooked up to a monitor that is also hooked up to a GSM modem. The GSM modem acts like a cellular phone that can send and receive text messages and calls.

At any time, people can send texts or prompt "missed calls" to the modem to get information on rainfall data.

"We collate [data from] these sensors to a controller. The controller extracts data from all the sensors. Then the controller collates these into one message. Once it receives a query by or 'missed call', it can text [data] via short message services [SMS]," said Earl Mendoza, an electrical engineer assigned to the project.

The rain gauge can be set to a specific warning level - when rain falls extremely fast and hard - that triggers the modem to send flood warnings to all cellphone numbers stored in its memory.

Time to prepare

"Essentially, what we want is to anticipate what will happen. If there's flooding upstream, then we can warn the people downstream of how high the flood will be," said David.

"When the critical level is reached, it should text somebody or several people of the flood. And that would give enough time for the people downstream to react to it," he added.

The geologist explained that there are certain instances when the rain gauge cannot predict an oncoming flood caused by factors other than rainfall.

The gadget cannot detect, for example, a flood caused by the swelling of the Marikina River.

David said the floods that hit Marikina City during tropical storm Ondoy were caused more by the excess water that flowed from the mouth of the Marikina River to the narrow parts of the river where the hardest-hit villages were located.

He said that if there was an effective automatic river level warning system installed in the area, people would have had sufficient time to evacuate.

"In the case of Marikina, they would have had 9 hours to prepare. Sayang (Too bad), if they had something like this installed," David said.

For now, the rain gauge has a "working set-up" in Bicol. But UP is willing to develop or install rain and river warning gadgets for any city or town that needs it. Report by TJ Manotoc, ABS-CBN News.