Applying Mobile Phone Data on Seismic Disaster Reduction

To grasp specific population distribution information is crucial for accurate impact assessments and preparedness planning on natural disasters. With the high popularization of mobile phones, it is possible to know the distribution trend of the people movement in different regions. The mobile phone data from Chunghwa Telecom (the telecommunications company with largest market share in Taiwan) displayed in 500m×500m grids gives the spatiotemporal distribution of people around the Taiwan area on the geographic information system (GIS). Combined with immediate reception of earthquake intensity distribution map, not only can the number of people at risk be more accurately estimated, but also the abnormal flow of people can be highlighted in areas, and then provide real-time warning messages. Except for the real-time crowd data, the historical data from one year of 2018, which is converted into weekly crowd data, are also provided for the purpose of seismic disaster scenarios to improve the precision of relief needs by the grid-base earthquake impact assessment technology of TERIA (Taiwan Earthquake Impact Research and Information Application Platform, established by NCDR) for enhancing the disaster resilience against future major earthquakes.