A simple low-cost video-based surveillance system for a flash flood warning system

Abstract

Flash flood is the most common and frequent natural disasters worldwide and can cause a loss of life and damage to property and the environment. In 2014, Manado city has experienced the most devastating flood that caused 19 people died, 10,884 homes destroyed, 2,091 people became homeless and estimated an economic loss of US$ 124 million. The huge loss was caused by the people and government did not receive information about water level rising on the watershed of the Tondano River. In conventional, decision maker needs the precipitation data and critical threshold value to issue the evacuation. There is an urgent requirement for end-to-end solution where the flash flood early warning system (FEWS) which can processed data in real-time can be integrated with Video-Based Surveillance System to take a role in saving peoples life. The aim of this study was to create a stand-alone system (Sensor Node) that could be placed on the watershed to monitor the water level rising using a microcomputer, a camera and a distance sensor. The aim of the system proposed was to measure the water level rising and when the threshold value was reached, the system would capture and display a real-time video. Future research can be done to “go-live” and posted the captured real-time video on the YouTube or Facebook in which people used them widely as a social media