How IoT Is Revolutionizing Disaster Prevention And Response
IoT For All, Wednesday, September 25th, 2024
Disasters can quickly impact the well-being of people and the planet. Whether caused by naturally occurring events such as hurricanes or floods or by human activities such as industrial accidents, sudden catastrophic incidents can result in human, environmental, and economic harm.
But forewarned is forearmed. Disaster prevention systems can play a critical role in saving lives and mitigating economic losses. Increasingly, sensor-based IoT technologies can provide vital early warnings of dangerous events or play a key role in managing the aftermath, thereby reducing further harm.
According to the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), disaster prevention and warning systems can shift the focus from managing disasters to managing risk. This helps to break the cycle of catastrophe-response-dependency. The economic benefit of such an approach is enormous. The UNDRR says that investing one dollar in making infrastructure disaster-resilient saves four dollars that would otherwise go toward rebuilding.