Applying IT Communication Technology in Public Awareness and Education for Reducing Hazard Casualty in South East Asia Developing Countries 3

Abstract

In developing countries, especially most of South East Asia countries, every year landslides, 12 mudslides and flood occur during monsoon rainy season and cause casualties not only in rural areas, but also in 13 urban areas. Public awareness and education activities are important to reduce the casualties of such natural 14 disasters. Nowadays, IT communication technology plays an important role in disseminating information and 15 education. Lately, applying IT communication technology for public awareness on natural hazard becomes a 16 trend among government authorities in these countries. 17 We begin our study in Malaysia on how to reduce landslides casualty for future natural hazard management in 18 these developing countries. For a better understanding on the occurrence of landslides, besides the mechnism on 19 how landslides occur, collecting historical data with location coordinates were carried out and stored in database 20 periodically. Public can browse these historical data via internet and know which areas are more prone to 21 landslides occurrence. 22 At the same time, IT communication technology was used to disseminate alert information after receiving 23 rainfall intensity data from the monitering sites. It was also more efficient to conduct the public and school 24 children awareness education by using such technology, as the simulation of rainfall induced slope failure 25 mechanism and educational video on symptoms of landslides before they occur may give a clearer picture and 26 better understanding to the public and school children.