BS Information Technology 1

Flood Monitoring System w/ SMS Notification

(Municipality of Can-avid Eastern Samar)

INTRODUCTION:

Climate change due to global warming has caused an increase in the unpredictability of weather
patterns in the world today. Global warming has caused the rise of sea levels due to the
unstopping rainfalls; a definite need has emerged for an early warning system for people in the
country deemed to high risk from flooding. Flood has caused damage properties, and it involved
several casualties. It is imperative to have an efficient flood response operation system to
managed primarily in the low-lying areas here in Can-avid Eastern Samar. Through our initial
observation, there was no presence of an automated smart system across the region that detects
and monitors flood. Even a simple flood monitoring system with Short Message System(SMS)
notification as an appropriate example of a smart system that continuously updates the level of
water with alert information.

In Eastern Samar especially in Can-avid, a low-lying area, residents, and authorities caught
unaware, especially regarding damages or losses of properties, livelihood( crops and animals),
and loss of human lives. Although TV, radios, and SMS rainfall alerts issued by National
Disaster Risk Reduction Mangement Council(NDRRMC) through National Telecommunication
Center(NTC) and Department of Science and Technology(DOST)-Philippine Atmospheric,
Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration(PAG-ASA) are not that effective.
Geographically speaking, Samar Island's mountain ranges & interconnected rivers(part of the
Island has severe rainfall that caused flash floods to the other side of the island) has considerable
effects to the severity of flooding. Presence of an evacuation areas/centers and authorities on
alert upon times of flooding, can't make sure in saving or escaping, especially keeping their
livestock on time, so a need of fast, convenient and reliable flood monitoring system with SMS
notification to alert residents and authorities when water level reaches in a critical height is
necessary.

To prevent flash flood damages the villages/barangays and injured human lives, and loss of lives
for worst scenarios. To lessen this kind of disaster, development of a Flood Monitoring System
with SMS notification to warn early information about the level of the water is necessary, hence
the proposed of this study.

OBJECTIVES:

This study aims to:

a.) Detects the current level of the flood where the system sensor is divided into three (3) levels.

Average

Critical

Emergency

b.) Distribute flood data and warnings.

c.) Develop algorithms for the feature extraction to identify the inundated areas.

2. Usability and accuracy of a flood monitoring system with SMS notification concerning

a.) can immediately send via SMS to the relevant authorities (MDRRMO) (LGU).

Scope and Limitation

This project focusses to monitor and to warn local officials (LGU's) (MDRRMO) of Can-avid
Eastern Samar if the water level is rising from rivers, lakes and other water bodies prone of
floods, the said authorities will be the one who will disseminate and warn the residents about the
devastating disaster.

Since all the system has its limitations, the limitation of this study is the SMS notification
service. It has only limited receiver due to network provider issue. So, we the researcher decided
to only the relevant authorities to spread the information given by system to the low-lying areas
here in Brgy. Can-avid Eastern Samar.

Significance of Study

The main output of the study will benefit the following:

1. Local Government Unit (LGU) Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office
(MDRRMO).

It is easier for the officer in charge in flood to monitor and disseminate information to the low-
lying areas here in Can-avid Eastern Samar.

2. Residents

It is easier to get information through SMS provided notification for spreading the level of the
water especially when it is at a critical level.

Through notifying people, they may be alert and prepared for evacuating in a high place area.

Definition of Terms
Ultrasonic sensor (HC-5RO4)

- The sensor that detects the water level.

Solar Panel

-a source of power of the system containing a 450mAh.

Arduino Uno

-the print circuit board(PCB) with microcontroller based on the ATmega328.

GSM/GPRS SIM900

-the bandwidth of short message services(SMS) to mobile phones of the said authorized

Mobile Phone

-receives the SMS from the system.

Light Emitting Diode (LED)

-the light emitting diode is activated every time the water touches the sensor.

Buzzer

- an audio signaling device that produces sound every time the water touches the sensor.
Chapter II

Related Literature

Previous work covers a wide-scope of topics including flood detection system in some
developing countries like countries like Canada, Australia, and the USA Many researchers have
been developed flood detection system in various ways, some of the types-based on GSM, an
early warning system for flood, satellite, and MC68CH11 Microcontroller.

A. Flood detection system alert

According to (Aziz et al., ), to construct a flood detection system that is useful and efficient is by
using GSM. The proposed architecture for an early warning flood system to alert public against
disaster. This research work is about architecture for a cooperative flood using GSM via SMS to
notify communities and hence to develop a prototype application of the system. The system
focuses on monitoring water level remotely using wireless sensor network. Also utilized Global
System for mobile communication (GSM) and Short Message Service (SMS) to relay data from
sensors to computers or directly alert the respective victims through their mobile phone.

(Subramaniam et al., ) Used Flood Observatory System (FOS) as a warning and alert system, to
efficiently monitor the critical flood-prone areas on a real-time basis. FOS designed to be an
intelligent gadget which is capable of sending real-time water level information from a remote
location to a monitoring station, distance away, regardless of time. FOS can link to a visual and
audio unit to display warnings and alerts the users via text displays, or a traffic light system is an
event of flooding.

(Martinis, ) Presented and automatic near-real-time (NRT) flood detection system which
combines histogram thresholding and segmentation based classification, specially oriented to the
analysis of single-polarized very high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data.

The challenge of SAR-based flood detection addressed in a completely unsupervised way, which
assumes no training data and therefore no prior information about the class statistics to be
available concerning the area of investigation. Usually, in the case of NRT-disaster management,
where the collection of ground truth information is not feasible due to time constraints.

(Zain et al., ) Proposed the development of flood detector system which will determine the
current water level assumed from the voltage from the detector. The data that collected will be
analyzed in the database to make sure the safety purpose has taken if the water reaches the
critical level. This project consists of three parts; the first part involved the development of the
system that can detect water level. The second part is about the system that will modulate the
signal that was collected from the processing system in this part and it will transmit the
modulated signal through the antenna. The receiver part receives the message from the third part
and displays on the display segment.
Chapter III

Methodology

The essential part of this study; we will request from the relevant authorities (MDRRMO)
(LGU's) regarding the current situation of the flood to the low-lying area here in Can-avid
Eastern Samar. There are three levels of warning in this project namely average, critical, and
emergency. The normal level can calm the resident in a place where they are. When the water
level reaches the average level, the system will send the information via SMS to the said
authorities with this message "The water level starts to become higher. Please stay at home!"
When the water level reaches the critical level, the system will send the information via SMS to
said authorities with these messages "Warning! Please prepare all the things that you need, and
evacuation is possible at any time!". And lastly, when the water level reached the emergency
level, the system will send the information via SMS to the said authorities with this message
"Alert! Please evacuate immediately to the nearest evacuation area". With this, the residence of
the said municipality will know where to calm, prepare and immediately leave to the evacuation
sites.

Software Development Model

Agile development Model generally promotes discipline in the software development process
where (The Agile Manifesto, 2001)was introduced. Agile development is a phrase used in
software development to describe methodologies for incremental software development.

Requirements

Design & Architecture

Quality Assurance & Software testing

Implementation

Maintenance & support

Figure. 1 Agile Model

A. System Design and Development

Flood Detecting Notification by using Wireless Sensor network is to Detect the level of Flood in
Advance way. In this System, it has two significant things include hardware Design and
Software Development. The Hardware part is a vital part of the system that can be able to control
the whole system and the transmitter and receiver module that use in the wireless purpose for
send and receive the signal. Flood level Detection is containing five main components which are:

1. Water Level Sensor

Consider is one of the critical devices because from these devices can be recognized the current
level of the water. When the flood is in the water level Sensor the System give information to the
NDRRMC checked it and spread it into the people using SMS notification.

2. Peripheral Interface control (PIC)

Peripheral interface controller (PIC) is considered the main components used in this system. All
the code programmed are installed inside PIC that used in this project. PIC recognize the primary
control of this system through software installed inside. One of the functions of PIC will receive
the signal from the three sensors, and it will process the data to know about the current level of
water.

3. Radio Frequency

Radio frequency (RF) is one of the varieties of electromagnetic waves with a frequency or
wavelength convenient for utilization in radio communication. There are two
Kinds of frequency that applied in radio communication, which are carrier frequency and
modulated frequency.

3.a Transmission medium

The duty of transmission medium to send the signal from the sensor part to the flood control
center part.

The Transmission medium that used in this system must be connected to the encoder to make
sure the data directly transmitted to the receiver. The function of the encoder is to change a
signal or data into a code. The decoder will only receive the data from the encoder.

3.b Receiver module

The general concept from for receiver is the receiving end of a communication channel. The
function of the receiver is received decoded information from the sender, who first encoded
them.

4. Global System for Mobile Communication

Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) is a wireless digital network standard design,
and the GSM standard provides a common set of compatible services and capabilities to all
mobile users.

a.1 System development flowchart is used to illustrate the flow and function of the system.

Start

End

Is the data successful reach the receiver?

By radio module thru send data by a signal from the transmitter to the receiver

Programmable Interface Controller (PIC)

Detect water level sensor

Yes

Analyze the data which came from the sensor to know about the current water level

GSM connection with PC

GSM will send SMS to the relevant authorities (NDRRMC), (LGU) to inform about the current
situation

Authorize agency (NDRRMC), (LGU) will disseminate the information given by the system

Figure 2. The flow chart of the system

a.2 System Architecture

Flood can happen any time, and when flood hazards occur and the level of water increasing
rapidly, the sensor will record the levels of water, and the data sent to the relevant authorities
(MDRRMO) (LGU). In the prototype model of the system, it contains three sensors as shown in
figure 3. The first sensor is to detect the low level and a message "The water level starts to
become higher. Please stay at home!" will be sent out. The second sensor detects the critical
level of water with the message "Warning! Please prepare all the things that you need;
evacuation is possible at any time!". The last one will detect the emergency level of water with a
message "Alert! Please evacuate immediately to the nearest evacuation area" which inform the
people about the dangerous situation of the flood.

In this system, we are using the GSM module for sending the data information via SMS to the
relevant authorities (MDRRMO) (LGU). Additionally, all the information which has been
received by the competent authorities (MDRRMO) (LGU), will disseminate the current situation
of the flood to the residence (low-lying areas).

Transmission medium

Sensor 1

Peripheral Interface control (PIC)

Encoder

Sensor 2

Barangay residences of Can-avid, Eastern Samar

(Low-lying Areas)

Decoder

Receiver

Peripheral Interface control (PIC)

Global System for Mobile (GSM)

NDRRMC and LGU

Sensor 3

Figure 3. The architecture of Flood Monitoring System w/ SMS notification

a..3 Software and Hardware requirements

Hardware Specification

Arduino Uno R3

Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM)

Arduino Water Level Sensor

Mobile Phones

Solar panel (450mAh)

Arduino Compiler Application

B. System Evaluation

b.1 Research Design

b.2 Locale

Can-avid, Eastern Samar, the place for the conduct of research

b.3 Data Gathering

b.4 Respondents of the study

Selected BS Information Technology Students

Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (MDRRMO)

Local Government Authorities (LGU)

b.5 Statistical tool use