Landslide Prediction System successfully tried in Thailand

NEC Corporation (Japan), in collaboration with Thailand's National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC), announced a few days ago the completion of the trial for a prediction system that identifies areas prone to landslide danger in Thailand.

Before setting the system on trial, NEC Corporation and the NDWC conducted verification experiments with a flooding simulation system in Uttaradit Province, Northern Thailand, from November 2015 to March 2016. Then, they moved on to confirm the effectiveness of their Landslide Prediction System with a trial in Chiang Mai Province, Northern Thailand, that took place between November 2016 and March 2017.

This Landslide Prediction System is one of the modules of NEC's "Integrated Risk Management System". This system consists of a shared platform with functions such as data integration, visualization, and early warning, and disaster modules specialized for particular disasters such as landslides, flooding and earthquakes. The disaster modules or functions can be selected individually as required, or several disaster modules can be combined in order to predict multiple disasters simultaneously.

The Landslide Prediction System performs a simulation based on meteorological data (observed rainfall and forecast rainfall), topographical data (elevation values, land use purposes), and soil data (soil depth, hydraulic conductivity, porosity, cohesion force, internal friction angle, etc.), making it possible to predict the degree of landslide danger.

Furthermore, the system can perform detailed simulations using a 50m quadrilateral mesh and provide hourly-basis prediction for a period of up to seven days in advance. This allows NDWC to issue warnings to threatened areas before the landslides occur, helping to reduce potential damage. Moreover, even during periods when no disaster is forecast, areas at risk of landslides can be identified by performing simulations using previous rainfall data, which enables hazard maps to be prepared.

Landslides triggered by heavy rains are a frequent phenomenon in Thailand, causing injuries and serious damage to property and transportation networks; thus, investing on measures for reducing them was a priority issue for the Thai government. NEC conducted the trial in collaboration with the Embassy of Japan in Thailand, as part of the "Research and study for the development of a landslide simulator in Thailand" project, commissioned by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The trial supports a greater disaster prevention cooperation project between Thailand and Japan, with the two countries aiming to cooperate in a wide range of areas, including the development of more sophisticated disaster prevention Information and Communication Technology and the use and application of the technologies.

The landslide prediction system is optimized for Thailand and is expected to have a role in the operations of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation and the NDWC", according to RADM Thavorn Charoendee, Executive Expert of NDWC, while the Thai government plans to continue work on the project, in order for the simulation area to be expanded.

According to Minoru Hirata, NEC's General Manager of Smart Infrastructure Division, the corporation will harness the experience and knowhow gained through this trial to promote the system to other Asian countries that also experience frequent damage from landslides.