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Track: Emergency Management and Public Safety
Flip Huyser
Rijswaterstaat RIZA
PO Box 17
Lelystad, 8200 AA
THE NETHERLANDS
Telephone: 31-320-298411
Fax: 31-320-249218
A. Dykstra
MapObjects Integrated in the Aquabel Report and Alarm System
The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. The waterways are extremely important for the economy. Rotterdam is the biggest port in the world. Millions of tons of cargo are carried along the Rhine to and from Germany every year. River water is also used in agriculture for sprinkling the fields, and cattle drink it. Companies use it for cooling machinery, and water managers use it to keep locks and canals at the right level. If a disaster occurs on the water, a large number of organizations soon become involved in a relatively small area. It is therefore important to warn these organizations quickly so that measures can be taken promptly. Consequently, the Dutch Ministry of Transport and Water Management has developed the AQUABEL information system. AQUABEL is an information system designed to help the Dutch government bodies deal with incidents and disasters that occur on the country's waterways. The system assists in the collection and processing of data on reported
incidents. To this end, a reporting system has been developed that enables all the relevant information to be gathered quickly. The details are then passed to the emergency services, the authorities, and (drinking water) companies via various lines of communication. AQUABEL also contains data on chemicals, so that disaster managers can assess the seriousness of any pollution quickly and determine the measures that need to be taken. AQUABEL has a GIS (MapObjects) interface, which displays the management district of the regional body in charge. The GIS interface provides a large number of functions. Besides the familiar methods for searching and retrieving local data, AQUABEL can also communicate via GIS. The location details form the basis for determining which emergency services have to be alerted. Once an object has been selected on the GIS map, the system displays the telephone number of the contact person so that the operator can place a call directly. Besides telephoning, AQUABEL can be used to send
faxes and E-mail via the GIS interface. The report and location details enable a large number of organizations to be alerted in a very short time. The details form the basis for taking measures such as evacuating wounded people, halting the pollution, extinguishing fires, tackling emissions, investigating the consequences of the pollution, calculating the distribution using duration and distribution models, blocking navigation routes, tracing the polluters, and so forth. The AQUABEL system is linked to other information systems that play an important role in integrated water management in the Netherlands. These systems include the IVS '90 system (a system that registers the details of ships and cargoes and allows them to travel from loading point to loading point) and the WVO-info system (a system that stores data on companies that discharge wastewater into the surface waters. AQUABEL is only used in the Netherlands at the moment. Proposals have been submitted to international committees to enable the
system to be used along the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt rivers.
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