Abstract --- Because of the unique geological structure of Taiwan and sharp slopes of mountains, floods and debris flows often seen after continuous rains. Floods claiming tremendous damages and causalities every year, also become a serious problem in emergent rescue.
Causes for frequent flood in Taiwan are:
1. Taiwan is situated in subtropical area where rainfall is abundant, especially in summer. In the monsoon season it may rain continuously for several weeks.
2. Typhoons come close to Taiwan nearly every year, bringing abundant of water.
3. Since rivers are narrow and short, water cannot be elicited within a short period of time. Rivers filled with large amount of water, rush into plains, immersing houses and villages.
No matter how good the banks and dikes can be, they can be destroyed by floods. In order to reduce the damages caused by floods, there is a need for setting up a command center for emergency rescue.
In this research project, we implement a geographic information system to store and present the floods happened in the past years in Taiwan. Important data include rainfall, flood area, damages, causalities, and experiences in emergent rescue.
One of the main characteristics of the system is the connection to the events of typhoon because most typhoons brought with floods. There is a table describing the floods caused by typhoons in the past.
In order to provide the rescue commander with valuable information, the system yields a one-page report for a query. If detailed data are asked, the user can drill-down the database to find more information.
Recognizing the seriousness of floods, we have collected the floods in Taiwan since 1978. The data are also a valuable resource for further study.
The system provides an interface for maintenance where users can update data and submit queries. Some results in this report are yielded after careful data analysis. In this research project we have reached the following achievements:
1. For rescue operator, we provide sufficient information of historic floods, rescue methods and experiences to empower them in rescue operations;
2. For researchers, we provide complete information for their study;
3. For the society, we provide materials for public education.