TA 8074-REG: Applying Remote Sensing Technology in River Basin Management
TERMS OF REFERENCE
Information and Communication Technology Consultant (Firm)
Background
1.
The Regional Capacity Development Technical Assistance (TA) for Applying Remote
Sensing Technology in River Basin Management will assist Bangladesh, the Philippines, and
Viet Nam to improve monitoring and warning systems on flood risk management with
reasonable cost and practical knowledge. The specific agenda includes (i) developing an
application methodology for the use of space-based technology (SBT) and information and
communication technology (ICT) for flood risk management, (ii) developing strategies and
programs for flood risk reduction by applying SBT and ICT, and (iii) developing capacity for SBT
and ICT. The TA will also help developing member countries (DMCs) in the region develop their
capacity to fully benefit from the use of SBT and ICT in river basin management by providing
additional technical support to Asian Development Bank (ADB) projects and surveys, and by
disseminating knowledge and best practices.
Objective and Scope of Work
2.
ADB seeks to engage a national, Information and Communication Technology
Consultant (Firm) to implement the TA activities in Bangladesh. It will be recruited through
consultant's qualification selection.
3.
The Information and Communication Technology Consultant (Firm) will provide the
competitive technical inputs to develop a flood warning/evacuation information dissemination
system in Bangladesh. Besides the specific tasks described below, each specialist in the team
must have effective planning, coordination, and supervising skills. The work also involves
preparation of reports mainly (a) monthly activity summaries, (b) midterm progress report,
(c) draft final report, (d) final report, and (e) occasional working papers on specific technical
subjects as required.
Implementation Arrangements
4.
ADB and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) signed a Partnership
Agreement for their collaboration under the TA, wherein ADB will be the executing agency and
JAXA, the implementing agency. The Information and Communication Technology Consultant
(Firm) will work under the overall supervision of ADB (through the Sustainable Infrastructure
Division of the Regional and Sustainable Development Department [RSID/RSDD]) with support
from JAXA. In addition, the Information and Communication Technology Consultant (Firm) shall
cooperate closely with other individual consultants, consulting firms, and target agencies in the
three countries to effectively carry out the tasks required for this project.
5.
The Information and Communication Technology Consultant (Firm) is expected to
provide 18 person-months of consultant inputs from November 2012 to March 2014. The
national consultants will be specialists in information and communication technology.
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Outline Terms of Reference for Consultants
6.
The summary of consulting services required, including qualifications and tasks to be
performed, is as follows:
(a)
ICT Specialist 1 / Team Leader – (10 person-months)
The ICT Specialist 1 will have a bachelor’s degree or higher in the field of ICT, or a
comparable discipline, and more than 5 years of experience in the field of computer and
information system using short message services (SMSs) or cell broadcasting system in
Bangladesh.
The specialist will develop a location-based local flood warning/evacuation information
dissemination system using SMS or cell broadcasting messages which can be sent and
delivered to cell phones present in any specific area which could be as small as the coverage of
a single cell. The specialist will also provide records of cellular phone use (voice call/SMS)
without any personal data (anonymous) for the estimation of population of a selected area. The
specialist will:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(b)
Review existing regulations and systems on SMS and cell broadcasting systems
in Bangladesh;
Develop software architecture, program, and test documents, and quality control
documents to achieve system requirement;
Develop a location-based local flood warning/evacuation information
dissemination system to send SMS or cell broadcasting messages to citizens
present in any specific area with the size of a few unions and not greater than a
single district, in a selected area in Bangladesh;
Provide SMSs or cell broadcasting messages through the system developed in
(iii) during the TA period and support emergency drill (evacuation training) activity
using the developed system conducted during the TA; and
Provide selected fields of records of cellular phone activities (call/SMS) without
personal data (anonymous) for the estimation of population of a selected area in
Bangladesh.
ICT Specialist 2 – (8 person-months)
The ICT Specialist 2 will have a bachelor’s degree or higher in the field of ICT, or a
comparable discipline, and more than 3 years of experience in the field of computer and
information system using SMSs or cell broadcasting systems in Bangladesh.
The specialist will support ICT Specialist 1 to develop location-based local flood
warning/evacuation information dissemination system which can send SMS or cell broadcasting
messages to cell phones present in a selected area in Bangladesh. The specialist will:
(i)
(ii)
Support ICT Specialist 1 to develop software architecture, program, and test
documents, and quality control documents for location-based local flood
warning/evacuation information dissemination system which can send SMS or
cell broadcasting messages to cell phones present in any specific area;
Support ICT Specialist 1 to develop location-based local flood
warning/evacuation information dissemination system which can send SMS or
cell broadcasting messages to cell phones present in any specific area in a
selected area in Bangladesh.
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Work and Output/Reporting Requirements
7.
The Information and Communication Technology Consultant (Firm) will be responsible
for all reporting and ensuring the timely submission of the deliverables listed below:
(i)
Implementation materials by 4 weeks after the mobilization of contract and
reports (inception by 20 December 2012, midterm by 1 May 2013, draft final by
1 March 2014, and final by 31 March 2014).
(ii)
Software architecture, program, and test documents, and quality control
documents for location-based local flood warning/evacuation information
dissemination system which can send SMS or cell broadcasting messages to cell
phones present in a selected area in Bangladesh by 1 March 2014.
(iii)
location-based local flood warning/evacuation information dissemination system
using SMS which can send SMS or cell broadcasting messages to cell phones
present in a selected area in Bangladesh by 1 March 2014 (preliminary version
by 30 April 2013, updated version by 30 September 2013).
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Reference; Key knowledge applied to TA
1.
Space-based technology (SBT)
(a)
Calibration and validation of GSMaP with ground observation data
Ground based rainfall observation network is widely deployed around the world for weather
forecasting, water related disaster management and integrated water resource management but
they are mainly located in developed countries and unevenly distributed. In addition, it may
sometimes be difficult to get rainfall data for international river basin in timely fashion. Therefore,
because space based observation provide uniform and high quality rainfall information regularly
all over the world, the space based rainfall observation becomes powerful tool.
JAXA offers hourly Global Rainfall Map in Near-Real-Time (GSMaP_NRT), available four hours
after observation with 0.1 degree grid in global area (60N - 60S), using the JAXA Global Rainfall
Watch System. The system is based on the combined Mircowave-Infrared algorithm using
TRMM TMI, Aqua AMSR-E, DMSP SSM/I and SSMIS, and Geostationary meteorological
satellites’ infrared data developed by the GSMaP project.
The GSMaP project was promoted for the study "Production of a high-precision, high-resolution
global precipitation map using satellite data" sponsored by Core Research for Evolutional
Science and Technology (CREST) of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) during
2002-2007 and this project is promoted by the JAXA Precipitation Measuring Mission (PMM)
Science Team in Earth observation research center (EORC) since 2007.
The main feature of the GSMaP algorithm is utilization of various attributes derived from TRMM
PR (Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission Precipitation Radar) developed by JAXA and NICT
that is the first and only spaceborne precipitation radar.
GSMaP_NRT rainfall products differ from GSMaP standard products in terms of input datasets,
although the basic algorithms are the same for both.
International Precipitation Working Group (IPWG) co-sponsored by the Coordination Group for
Meteorological Satellites (CGMS) and WMO was established to promote standard operational
procedures and common software for deriving precipitation measurements from satellites
including GSMaP. The IPWG members have studied intercomparison of precipitation derived
from numerical weather models, satellites, and ground radar and/or rain gauge networks in five
active sites (North America, South America, Australia, Western Europe and Japan) and show
the good synergy results. For GSMaP calibration and validation, JAXA with Japanese scientists
play a main role to verify high resolution satellite based rainfall estimates around Japan using
rain gauges and gauge calibrated ground radar dataset, upon their experiences in
developments of GSMaP algorithms, instruments onboard innovative Earth observation
satellites including PR, and their algorithms. The evaluation shows that GSMaP does well in
capturing the spatial patterns of precipitation, validation results over the ocean were best and
results over mountainous regions were worst.
The GSMaP is used for the Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS) for more effective and
efficient flood forecasting as an input data, which is developed by the International Centre for
Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) and it will also be used for the Global Flood
Alert System (GFAS) operated by IDI. In addition, Prof. T. Koike, university of Tokyo applied
Water and Energy Budget-based Distributed Hydrological Model (WEB-DHM) to optimize dam
operation for integrated water resource management of transboundary international river by
using GSMaP data
(b)
Improvement of flood warning using ALOS-DSM
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To make flood warning, it is important to get good input information, such as rainfall information,
with land surface information, especially topographical information. For international river, it may
sometimes be difficult to get latest land topographical information cross country boundary.
Therefore, because space based observation provide uniform and high quality topographical
information (Digital Elevation Model (DEM) / Digital Surface Model (DSM)) regularly all over the
world, the space based DEM/DSM becomes powerful tool.
The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS, nicknamed “Daichi”) had been operating from
January 2006 to May, 2011. ALOS had three mission instruments including L-band Synthetic
Aperture Radar called PALSAR, and two optical sensors called PRISM and AVNIR-2.
PRISM stands for the Panchromatic Remote sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping, and uses
for generating DSM based on stereoscopic technique, and ortho-rectified image. Therefore,
geometric calibration is most important for accuracy evaluation of PRISM standard products.
The absolute geometric calibration is done by evaluating the pointing alignment parameters,
which are calculated by the Precision Pointing and Geolocation Determination System (PPDS)
that is a ground processing system to achieve determinations of precise attitude and pointing
vectors for each PRISM radiometer. The geometric correction accuracy shows the overall
geometric accuracy, and could be calculated from comparison between the actual geographical
coordination (longitude, latitude and height above ellipsoid) of GCP that could be identified on
the images and the calculated one by using image coordinate (pixel, line) of GCP with
transformation coefficients that are derived from sensor model at the system correction and
include in the product to improve geometric absolute accuracy as well as geolocation
determination accuracy of PRISM, the pointing alignment parameters have to be estimated
precisely including variations of recurrent and seasonal due to thermal condition changes, and
time trend since launch of the ALOS. JAXA’s PRISM calibration shows that the accuracy of
PRISM DSM depends on the terrain characteristics i.e. land-use and land-cover as well. The
height accuracies of them were 4 to 5m for flat area, 5 to 7m for various terrain mixed areas, 5
to 6m for mountainous areas and 6 to 8m for steep terrain areas.
2.
Information and communication technology (ICT)
(a)
Flood risk management using WebGIS
It is important to show various types of information for flood risk management derived from
several sources as integrated information, and WebGIS system can display and overlay various
information in the form of grographical map. WebGIS technology was standardized by OpenGIS
consortium (OGC) and JAXA developed and operated distributed Sentinel Asia Step 2 system
based on OGC standard Web map server technology to disseminate disaster related
information derived from earth observation satellite.
(b)
Disaster warning dissemination using cellular phone
One of the strategies to make disaster warning dissemination effective in many different
countries is re-use a scheme of a community-based flood risk management (CBFRM). However,
each country may have different risk management and disaster warning dissemination method,
which results in different forms of community based approach. CBFRM system under the
initiation of local community is based on the knowledge of local residents, and it fits well to the
local condition. However, the fusion of indigenous knowledge with scientific know-how is
required to make it workable in different contexts. Therefore, disaster warning dissemination by
short message service (SMS) over cellular phone can be conducted under the TA for
demonstration purpose. Especially, flood warning message types and contents, dissemination
rule and flow definition will be developed based on CBDRM’s requirement in each country. In
general, flood warning by flood warning system with SBT will be interpreted into defined flood
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warning message type and the message will be delivered from flood warning authority to
Cellular Phone Company to disseminate by SMS.