Design & Development of E-Line Proactive Wireless Disaster Management and Civionics System

Abstract

After the events of September 11, 2001, the Kashmir Earthquake of Oct 2005, the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005, the terrorist bombings of July 7, 2005 in London, the Karachi Nishtar Park and other suicidal blasting in Pakistan and the 2010 floods in the all four provinces of Pakistan, there is a widespread sense in Pakistan and in many other parts of the world that humanity has entered a new and more dangerous era. In this new world of the twenty-first century it is essential that we anticipate such events (Early Warnings) and their potential impacts. It is impossible to know exactly what form they will take, how severe they will be, or where and when they will occur, but their devastating impacts (pains) can be mitigated through demonstration of extensive strategic planning. The work in this thesis, therefore, is about the value of a specific area of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) planning, how Pakistan might make improvements in that specific area and types of and the role these play in disaster and emergency management. Thus, we have proposed a system that demonstrates an interoperable and integrated view of many agencies and organizations in Pakistan that can facilitate and improve the efficacy of routine, day-today public safety operations before, during and after a disaster hits in a country which is a developing one. The system is based on E-line-cum-State of the art prevailing Wireless Technology. Specifically, Pakistan’s Law Enforcement Agencies (Army, Air force, Navy and Police), governmental agencies, NADRA, public safety departments, newly proposed emergency response teams and general public will benefit from this system. The scenarios which have been addressed are a “system of systems” (PANs: MANET and VANET, JANs: IEEE 802.16e/ {also IEEE 802.20}, mobile broadband wireless networking and mesh networking technologies, IANs: IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks, EANs: Satellite Connectivity and wireless ad hoc networking technologies) that contains operational requirements described using scenarios such as Multi- disciplined, within a local area (A pre-planned event , A terrorist bomb attack, A local fire incidence etc ) and Multi-disciplined large-scale regional events (A hurricane, An earthquake, A flood etc). Thus the thesis discusses novel ideas of applying information and communication technologies such as the geo-spatial maps that are an essential part of search-and-rescue operations using GIS, about remote sensing using GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers that allow first responders to analyze zones and locate damaged buildings or injured residents, about images that are captured from aircraft to provide the first comprehensive picture of an event’s impact, about road maps that form the basis of evacuation planning, and about all other information connected to a location that can be used in emergency management. The analysis was performed using the OPNET Modeler to design and develop simulated models corresponding to Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (with Specific focus on Earthquake Early Warning System), its various wireless flavors (like WiMAX, WiFi and Zigbee Models also with Satellite Connectivity) and models related to handling issue of communication interoperability and integration between varying public safety organizations, NGOs, law enforcement and investigating agencies, relief organizations using link redundancy principles of wired and wireless telecommunication technologies such as WiMAX, WiFi, Zigbee, Satellite and IP-based broadband connectivity. The thesis discusses how these technologies reflect in transforming voice, video and image data on internet and email over wireless communication medium in disaster engineering (Chapter 3, 4, 5).