To recover memories of debris flows, the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau collected old photos to raise disaster prevention awareness
Recently, residents of Jiaoxi in Yilan were protesting ahead of a construction information session for a new Far Glory hotel, questioning that the development site is adjacent to 2 debris-flow potential streams and is simply unsuitable for development. But people who "have memories" like those in Jiaoxi are actually not many. In order to raise public awareness of disaster prevention and at the same time build a systematic debris-flow database, the Debris Flow Disaster Prevention Center of the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau under the Council of Agriculture specially launched a 2-month activity to collect debris-flow photos, aiming to use the power of netizens and researchers to help the public become "people with memories." (The photo above shows a giant boulder carried by a debris flow disaster in Ningpu Village, Changbin Township, Taitung County during Typhoon Zeb in 1998, provided by the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau)
Photos of historical disasters speak louder than thousands of words
Netizens and researchers participate together, jointly building education, a story database, and a home-buying reference
"We hope this activity can systematically organize and collect related materials, so that the public can become 'people with memories,'" but limited by the difficulty of obtaining old photos, although there have been "government publications," many are not high-resolution enough and cannot be used, so it is hoped that the general public and researchers can participate together.
"Netizens can also upload photos and freely edit 'photo stories,'" allowing the public to better understand the context of the photos; and disclosing this information also helps the public better understand their own living environment, or "the choice of buying a house." On the platform, besides viewing photos, you can also see all of Taiwan's debris-flow potential streams at a glance. For example, outside Yilan's Jiaoxi Railway Station there are 3, and near the Linkou Tableland close to the commercial district and near Fu Jen Catholic University there are also many potential streams distributed.
As for uploaders of photos, they can set "Creative Commons permissions" according to their own needs, using 4 settings and 6 combinations such as "Attribution," "Non-Commercial Use," "No Derivatives," and "Share Alike" currently, what the Council of Agriculture provides is all shared under "the most permissive 'Attribution,'" meaning that as long as the image source is credited, it can be used.
For detailed methods, you can visit the Facebook fan page of "Debris Flow Disaster Prevention Information Network""Soil and Water Conservation Bureau Debris Disaster Photo Collection Activity Website"