Demeter
Use of drones for the prevention of natural disasters.
Tectonic faults: Near the Frailes area there are two tectonic faults called the Jarris fault and the Frailes-Pirris-Pangolin fault.
The aforementioned faults have caused a great impact on the roads because they have been severely damaged, including main streets, on which many people in the community depend to be able to move to their work practices. As is the case of the road located in Barrio Esperanza, to which the national emergency committee has even pronounced that they can cause damage to homes that are around the road and that even being repaired, it will continue to have significant sinkholes.
Another case of how these failures affect the community is a locality near a business located in Frailes, which is currently a vacant lot, but it was not always this way, before in this same area was located a home, which was built with the dreams of a family, but unfortunately they were totally unaware that in that land there was a fault, which inevitably caused sinkholes in that home, the family of that house had no choice but to leave their home.
Also in front of this locality, in 2009 with the earthquake of Cinchona, this fault caused significant sinking in the road, causing the closure of this. This is a main road, where the public transportation that takes many workers to the cities of San José and Cartago passes.
In the locality of La Violeta, situations very similar to the previous ones happen, since the main road of this one has suffered of big sinkholes, which have been repaired time after time, but, nevertheless, they continue having the same problem, the neighbors of this community have asked repeatedly for help to municipalities for the solution of this one, but when not being able to have sufficient information on this failure, the situation cannot be improved. On the other hand, in this same locality many homes have been affected by this failure, having to disable many of their homes, without even having many families where to go.
Due to this same reason the national emergency commission has prohibited construction on many nearby lands, the problem with this is that they do not investigate if the fault really happens on those lands, they only reject the construction permits, leaving the inhabitants without any option, this due to the lack of information and not having tools to locate the faults.
information about drones:
Focus area:
Frailes is a locality and district number six of the canton of Desamparados, in the province of San José, in Costa Rica, founded in the year 1841. It is located in the south of the canton and has a territorial extension of 19.57 km².2 The district is bordered to the north by the canton of Cartago, to the northwest by the district of Rosario, to the west by the canton of AserrÃ, to the south by the canton of León Cortés, and to the east by the district of San Cristóbal.
The district is characterized by being part of the Zona de los Santos, a series of inter-mountainous valleys in the center-south of Costa Rica with high coffee production.
Problems of the zone:
The aforementioned failures have caused a great impact on the roads since they have been severely damaged, including main streets, on which many people in the community depend, to achieve mobility to their work practices. The national emergency committee has even stated that they can cause damage to homes around the road and that even if the road is repaired, it will continue to have significant subsidence.
Solutions
By identifying which are the vulnerable points in the area, it is possible to identify which are causing landslides and which cause the structures to lose their original shape, in this case it is possible to notice the deterioration of the soil and noticeable slopes.
The use of drones would be of great importance, because it would be possible to obtain more efficient and accurate information about these failures, which is a problem at present, since no emergency plan has been created yet and there is not much information about them.
Therefore, this would not only make it easier to find the faults, but also to give better maintenance to the roads, and even to find alternative and safe routes for the mobility of the community.
Benefits of using drones in the event of natural disasters:
*Create a well-detailed mapping of the area.
* Identify the most vulnerable sites.
* Create a broader view of the affected site.
* Images or videos detailing each and every one of the areas at risk.
* Avoid loss of human lives and help the victims.
Possible emergency protocol for natural disasters:
False in the ground: To prevent these "false", before building will have the help of drones, the drone could take details about the relief of this place, thus verifying whether it is a safe area or not.
And in case there is a home in this area, the best option would be to uninhabit the house and to follow the following advice: restrict access to the area affected by the falseo and avoid approaching it. Together with the local emergency commission, coordinate the fulfillment of such advice, in order to avoid risky actions by the community.
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Study conducted by
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Leonardo Gabriel Méndez Valverde
Escuela Cecilio Piedra Gutiérrez
Frailes de Desamparados
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Naizeth Fabiana Valverde Obando
CTP José Figueres Ferrer
Frailes de Desamparados
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Special thanks:
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Alizon Calderon Robles
Below are some images of an area affected by the landslides:
