In August 2009, Typhoon Morakot swept over almost the entire southern region of Taiwan with record breaking heavy rains rendering many parts of the area submerged in waist-deep floods, leaving many roads and private properties damaged and with over 400 fatalities recorded.
After that incident Chou, Hsueh-Cheng, Deputy Division Head, from the National Science & Technology Centre for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) in Taiwan, told FutureGov that it made the government re-think of how it would further improve its disaster management strategies.
“After typhoon Morakot, the Government discovered that there is a critical need for an integrated and complete decision support system that would enable central and local government agencies respond efficiently to emergencies and incidents so as to reduce damages and losses caused by natural hazards,” he said.