Designing a spatial cloud computing system for disaster (earthquake) management, a case study for Tehran

Abstract

IT experts believe that cloud computing is turning into the fifth vital human needs preceded by water, electricity, gas, and telecommunications. In line with this trend, one of its major applications is in the swiftness enhancing of disaster management entities. This research, by using the huge capacities of cloud computing, aims to design a system to promote the performance of relief operations in disaster hit areas. The architecture of the designed system consists of two parts: hardware and software. In the hardware side, using NIST standards, the assessment function designed by Iran’s Passive Defense Organization, also applying Tehran’s telecom infrastructures plans and selecting 20 main centers in Tehran, a high bandwidth and widespread network of fiber optic infrastructure as the physical backbone of our cloud-based system has been exploited which covers all areas of the city. In the software part, an application has been developed using the ASP.net capabilities in the Microsoft Visual Studio to collect and integrate the data gathered by early dispatched relief groups. Based on the special prioritization algorithm designed by Iran’s passive defense organization, the application is capable of providing information by analyzing various spatial data. By processing and unifying the input data into the DBMS, the designed service offers a wide range of capabilities including real-time spatial tables, graph and curve generation, and different special-temporal queries in prioritizing the quake hit areas, recognizing and targeting the most severely hit ones. The mentioned capabilities enable city managers and decision makers to enhance the accuracy, swiftness, and effectiveness of relief operations.