Industry News
Resilient City Guarantees Beautiful and Livable Taiwan
Several heavy rain incidents occurred in the summer of 2018 and 2019, causing a number of disasters in major cities across Taiwan. In response to extreme rainfall incidents caused by climate change, urban infrastructure must be constructed in a direction that is “no fear of flooding” and the overall resilience must be upgraded accordingly.
Internationally, the construction of a "resilient city" has been adopted as a solution to extreme weather: water storage equipment, permeable building materials, and outflow suppression facilities have been integrated into community buildings and road infrastructure to strengthen the water retention function for public facilities and increase infiltration and water storage to reduce flood peak. With the continuous revision of central and local regulations governing water conservancy, construction, sewer and others, it has also prompted the public and private sectors to expand their procurement and use of the above-mentioned equipment. It is expected that the related industries will grow rapidly in the next ten years.
In addition, water conservancy authorities at all levels have also begun to integrate a variety of sensing devices and communication technologies to strengthen their adaptability to changes; this includes the estimation of rainfall with weather radar echo maps and sensing devices installed in rainwater channels and slopes and then the geographic information system (GIS) and urban landscape flooding simulation are used to predict the high-risk hazard potential areas in the next few hours. Alarms (including early warning of torrential rain) are then issued through the alarm push system to the above areas, so that the existing pumping stations can deploy mobile pumps to strengthen their drainage capacity; the above-mentioned water regime information may also be used in insurance and other financial products to create a new business model, which is a strong rising trend in the future.
Internationally, the construction of a "resilient city" has been adopted as a solution to extreme weather: water storage equipment, permeable building materials, and outflow suppression facilities have been integrated into community buildings and road infrastructure to strengthen the water retention function for public facilities and increase infiltration and water storage to reduce flood peak. With the continuous revision of central and local regulations governing water conservancy, construction, sewer and others, it has also prompted the public and private sectors to expand their procurement and use of the above-mentioned equipment. It is expected that the related industries will grow rapidly in the next ten years.
In addition, water conservancy authorities at all levels have also begun to integrate a variety of sensing devices and communication technologies to strengthen their adaptability to changes; this includes the estimation of rainfall with weather radar echo maps and sensing devices installed in rainwater channels and slopes and then the geographic information system (GIS) and urban landscape flooding simulation are used to predict the high-risk hazard potential areas in the next few hours. Alarms (including early warning of torrential rain) are then issued through the alarm push system to the above areas, so that the existing pumping stations can deploy mobile pumps to strengthen their drainage capacity; the above-mentioned water regime information may also be used in insurance and other financial products to create a new business model, which is a strong rising trend in the future.
Taiwan’s telecommunications industry is highly developed, and many mature technologies have been integrated into disaster prevention, early warning and response solutions. Among the exhibitors this time, the Integrated Plasma Inc.'s soil and water sensors and the Citpo Tech's fiber grating sensors can be used as sensing equipment for the Internet of Things for city-scale water regime; the WaveGIS Technology Co., Ltd. provides services in the construction of the early warning systems for flood control by integrating meteorological data and sensing information for algorithms; in addition, the Xiangsheng Machinery & Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. together with the Chung Yi Electric Machinery Works Co., Ltd., provides mobile pumps and intelligent control systems with early warning data to effectively improve regional drainage capacity.
Many counties and cities in Taiwan have begun to set up demonstration facilities for "early warning systems for flood prevention" and "resilient cities". For example, Tainan City uses the regional historic data of flooding and heavy rain incidents and the real-time assessment information of the sewer water levels to set up its flood forecast model; Yilan County constructs a city-scale flood warning system by integrating data from the water level rain gauge stations, the water level stations and the monitors. If the energies of Taiwan's booming water conservancy industry can be consolidated and public-private cooperation can achieved, the infrastructure in every place will become even more resilient in the face of extreme rainfall and the "safe water environment" will be realized.
Many counties and cities in Taiwan have begun to set up demonstration facilities for "early warning systems for flood prevention" and "resilient cities". For example, Tainan City uses the regional historic data of flooding and heavy rain incidents and the real-time assessment information of the sewer water levels to set up its flood forecast model; Yilan County constructs a city-scale flood warning system by integrating data from the water level rain gauge stations, the water level stations and the monitors. If the energies of Taiwan's booming water conservancy industry can be consolidated and public-private cooperation can achieved, the infrastructure in every place will become even more resilient in the face of extreme rainfall and the "safe water environment" will be realized.