Kanlaon: Disaster

Management
Information System
Adapted from VAPOR: volcanic activity: processing of observation and remote
sensing data
Over the last few decades, the importance of effective management of information is being
increasingly recognized in the disaster management sector in Asia and Pacific regions. A
number of countries have set up disaster management information systems according to their
own specific needs. The applications of these systems range from emergency response
planning to short-range early warning to long-range mitigation and prevention planning. This
paper is structured to give a concept disaster management system for Kanlaon Volcano,
Philippines.

Project Charter
Project Name: Disaster Management Information System
Focus Area: Kanlaon Volcano
Version 1
Prepared By: Marc Steven D. Aguilar
Project Risk Management Plan Version Control
Version Date
Author
Change Description

Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................. 1
BUSINESS CASE ........................................................................................................................................... 1
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................................... 1
ADDITIONAL BENEFITS ..................................................................................................................... 1
OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................................................ 2
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ............................................................................................................................... 2
RISK ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................................ 3
DELIVERABLES ............................................................................................................................................. 3
SUMMARY MILESTONE SCHEDULE .................................................................................................................. 4
SUMMARY BUDGET ..................................................................................................................................... 5
PROJECT APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS .............................................................................................................. 5
PROJECT MANAGER ..................................................................................................................................... 5
PROJECT CHARTER APPROVALS ...................................................................................................................... 5
REFERENCE: ................................................................................................................................................ 6

Project Charter

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Volcanic disasters are caused by lava flows, volcanic mudflows and pyroclastic flows
triggered by volcanic activities such as eruptions. Covering extensive areas, volcanic
disasters can cause a large-scale damages and serious personal injury. Secondary disasters
such as debris flows are often triggered by rainfall after a volcanic eruption.
Within the Philippines, numerous volcanoes threaten people, property, and infrastructure
on the ground, as well as aircraft in the skies. Many hazardous volcanoes currently are
under-monitored, have antiquated monitoring systems, or have no ground-based
monitoring at all.
Natural hazards, such as volcanic eruptions or earthquakes, become disasters only if a
community or population is exposed to the natural hazard and cannot cope with its effects.
An effective monitoring and hazard-warning system will generate timely and accurate
identification of the hazards and provide mechanisms to inform people so that they can take
action to mitigate the impact of the hazardous phenomena.

BUSINESS CASE
Millions of people worldwide owe their lives and livelihoods to effective early warning
systems. People-centered early warning systems empower communities to prepare for and
confront the power of natural hazards. They bring safety, security and peace of mind. Early
warning systems provide resilience to natural hazards, and protect economic assets and
development gains. They help society adapt to and defend against the uncertainties of
climate change. Early warning systems are widely recognized as worthwhile and necessary
investments. However in many cases, early warning systems do not exist, are ineffective, or
break down at critical points risking devastation, death, and destitution.
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS
It is likely that DMIS will not be a standalone system, but instead an integrated
component of a larger program, and require both public and private sources of
funding. In addition to the obvious benefits this system will provide to humanity, it is
conceivable to begin implementation of a DMIS from a business and financial
standpoint.
ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
There are many examples of large data repositories throughout the world, and often
the distinguishing feature of these repositories is the manner in which they are used.
Information products generated by a DMIS can play an important role in our
understanding of the nature of volcanoes, which will in turn support better
knowledge of the precursors to an eruption event. Of equal importance, however, is
the potential for the data to be used beyond the volcanology community. The data
that will be accessible in this framework could help developing nations better
understand how to manage land use near a volcano, or could be used to educate
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Project Charter

school children about basic geophysics. Many countries with volcanoes develop
emergency action plans, but then let those plans fall out of date. Because a DMIS
would continually be updated by Earth observation data, countries could draw upon
those products to update and improve their emergency response scenarios. In many
ways, the data collected by a given satellite or observatory would increase in value
due to their access to a DMIS, because the audience with the ability to access that
data would increase substantially.

OBJECTIVES
The principal goal of this plan is to establish co-ordinated management of response and
warning system. To achieve this goal, the following objectives are identified:
Establishing a framework of the DMIS
Establishing protocols for the timely and efficient warning of volcanic activity to
facilitate co-ordinated emergency management;
Initiation of immediate communication and public information activities;
Ensuring that declarations are made as necessary and that the process of declaration
is transparent for those involved in emergency management; and
Appropriate deployment of information for the management of emergency agency;

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
The high-level requirements for Kanlaon DMIS are classified into four categories: end-user,
early warning, hazard tracking, and core system requirements. The requirements for early
warning and hazard tracking are defined independently, because they represent tasks that
the system is supposed to carry out separately.
For the end-user requirements, the system shall be capable of providing information to at
least five classes of end-users: the aviation community, private citizens, emergency crews,
authorities, and the scientific community. The information provided to each end-user should
allow them to plan, make decisions, and take appropriate actions. It should be noted that
the end-user requirements have been written according to reference documents and not in
coordination with any specific end-user. Consultation with end-users is a necessary next
step before the implementation of the DMIS framework.
For the early warning requirements, a DMIS system shall be capable of collecting and
analysing data about the precursors of volcanic activities such as thermal flux, gas emissions,
hydrological changes, geomagnetic changes, seismic activity, and ground deformation.
For the hazard tracking requirements, a DMIS system shall be capable of accessing data
that can be used to track hazards associated with volcanic activity including pyroclastic
flows, lahars, lava flows, landslides, and ash plumes.
For the core system requirements, a DMIS system shall be capable of collecting, processing,
storing, and delivering data coming from different sources. All the data provided will be
transformed by the system into a standardised, documented, and open format. To allow the
system to expand in the future, it will be flexible, extendable, and scalable.
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Project Charter

RISK ANALYSIS
A major risk to successful implementation of the DMIS framework is finding a continuous
and reliable funding source. The system defined by the DMIS framework would not be
sustainable if, after an initial investment period, funding was then lost, and those relying on
its products were left without assistance.
Another substantial implementation challenge is that of governance. The framework
defined could bring substantial benefits to many organizations throughout the world. Also,
proper data formatting must be considered a high priority in order to meet the users need
for timely information. A consortium of interested government agencies and remote sensing
organizations has successfully governed similar systems, and that same model could be
applied to this framework.
Provided that funding can be secured and governance of the system can be settled upon,
the next major challenges will be collection and standardization of data and dissemination
of the information products. Standardization will require particular attention, because the
goal set out by the DMIS framework is to provide users with easily accessible and useful
information.
Many international organizations have taken on the challenge of developing international
standards, and a DMIS could closely follow the lead of these groups. Proper data formatting
must be considered a high priority in order to meet the users need for timely information
Communication and computing technologies are continuously evolving. Incorporating these
technologies into the DMIS framework means that such a system will also evolve, allowing
more effective dissemination of early warning and hazard tracking information.
Access to data is another significant risk. A well-defined and rigorous security plan would
need to be clearly established and implemented in order to give confidence to countries
that shared data would only be used for acceptable purposes. Losing this credibility would
have a large negative impact on the system.
False alarms are the final major risk identified in the analysis. If a VIDA system incorrectly
activates an emergency response scenario, the cost and liability may be significant.
Therefore, the final decision to activate any emergency response must be made by a human
end-user. This would increase the lag time for an emergency response, but would be a
necessary safeguard.

DELIVERABLES
The main deliverable for this project is the DMIS framework. The ultimate goal for this
project is to help save the lives of people threatened by volcanic hazards, while protecting
infrastructure and contributing to decision support mechanisms in disaster risk
management scenarios.
DMIS is a framework for the design of a system capable of integrating data from global
providers, standardizing that data, processing it into useful information, and disseminating
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Project Charter

both data and information to the end-users. The actual design, selection of data, and the
proposed standardization are all beyond the scope of this project. Providers would include
ground-based, air-based, and space-based Earth observation sensors that collect data on
the precursors and indicators of volcanic activity. End-users could include decision makers at
various levels of government, aviation authorities, the scientific community, emergency
crews, and populations at risk from volcanic hazards. Such end-users would obtain data and
information through a variety of means including the internet via web-based tools,
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tool interfaces, specific networkbased interfaces,
mobile platforms, etc. By disseminating information in near-real-time, such a system
adhering to the DMIS framework could provide advanced warnings to end-users, enabling
them to avoid the effects of volcanic activity. Such a system could allow end-users to track
volcanic hazards, enabling them to mitigate their effects.
Not only would a DMIS present a technological challenge, it would also have implications on
policy, law, economics, society and education. Policy and law issues include governance,
data collection and standards, licensing, and liability. Societal and educational issues include
the potential benefits of such a system and local community awareness of volcanic hazards.
Economic aspects include possible stake holders, funding, and business opportunities. The
aforementioned framework is not the system itself. The design and implementation of a
DMIS is well beyond the scope of this project. Instead, this project has conducted the
preliminary work of identifying and assessing the need for this system, researching the
expectations of the end-users, and establishing a set of top-level requirements that such a
system would need to satisfy.

SUMMARY MILESTONE SCHEDULE

The project Summary Milestone Schedule is presented below. As requirements are more
clearly defined this schedule may be modified. Any changes will be communicated through
project status meetings by the project manager.
Summary Milestone Schedule List key project milestones relative to project start.
Task Name

Software/Web Developmemt
Project Identification
Design Process
Prototype
System testing
Go live
Post Go Live
Computer System Development

Duration

45 days
1 day
8 days
26 days
20 days
7 days
3 days
45 days

Start

Mon 3/14/11
Mon 3/14/11
Tue 3/15/11
Fri 3/25/11
Mon 4/4/11
Mon 5/2/11
Wed 5/11/11
Mon 3/14/11

Finish

Fri 5/13/11
Mon 3/14/11
Thu 3/24/11
Fri 4/29/11
Fri 4/29/11
Tue 5/10/11
Fri 5/13/11
Fri 5/13/11

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Project Charter

SUMMARY BUDGET
The following table contains a summary budget based on the planned cost components and
estimated costs required for successful completion of the project.
Summary Budget List component project costs
Project Component

Component Cost

Personnel Resources

Removed

Hardware

Removed

Software Development

Removed
Total Removed

PROJECT APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS

Success for the Kanlaon DMIS project will be achieved when a fully tested early warning
system solution, and all technical documentation, is fully deployed throughout the company
within the time and cost constraints indicated in this plan. Additionally, this measure of
success must include a recommendation list for future security considerations as we fully
anticipate the necessity of this solution to evolve in order to prevent future threats. Success
will be determined by the Project Sponsor, Prof. Steve Lowrie, who will also authorize
completion of the project.

PROJECT MANAGER
Marc Aguilar is named Project Manager for the duration of the DMIS Project. Mr. Aguilars
responsibility is to manage all project tasks, scheduling, and communication regarding the
DMIS project. Mr. Aguilar will coordinate all resource requirements. Mr. Aguilar is
authorized to approve all budget expenditures up to, and including, the allocated budget
amounts. Any additional funding must be requested through the Project Sponsor, Prof.
Steve Lowrie. Mr. Aguilar will provide weekly updates to the Project Sponsor.

PROJECT CHARTER APPROVALS

Prepared by Marc Steven D. Aguilar _________________________________
Project Manager
Approved by

Steve Lowrie
Project Sponsor

_________________________________

Version Number: 1.0

Issue Date: March 18, 2011

Project Charter

REFERENCE:
Angela Aragon Angel et al, 2008, VAPOR: volcanic activity: processing of observation and remote
sensing data, SSP Team Project. International Space University, Strasbourg.
PHIVOLCS: Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/
Ernest Orlando Lawrence, 2008, OPERATING AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN. Berkeley National
Laboratory.
Beca Carter Hollings & Ferner, 2002, Contingency Plan for the Auckland Volcanic Field.

Version Number: 1.0

Issue Date: March 18, 2011