Map-based Public Awareness Building System for Disaster Prevention

This paper presents a map-based system in which local residents can supply and share disaster prevention information. Producing a disaster prevention map with public participation is very useful as learning and awareness building for natural disasters. Our system's unique feature introduces a card-image data structure, which makes it easy for users to add new information, such as information about shelters, to a map and makes it possible for the system to arrange the collected information. In addition, it is a feature of the system that users can use the latest maps of areas prone to disasters, because they can add such maps so easily. Therefore, users can appropriately understand the town's readiness for disaster prevention. To evaluate our system, we conducted experiments in Handa City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan in which ten individuals participated. After using our system, participants provided many favorable comments. From the results of the experiment, we found that our system was effective for disaster prevention activities in a local community.