Observatory System for Monitoring Road Accidents in Nigeria
Chapter One
Research Objectives
The Objective of this research is to build and implement an observatory system to monitor road accidents across Nigeria and be able to visualize the accidents, by their severity, locations, driver, vehicle type, casualty, and in some cases fatalities. Also, it would be used to monitor the cause of the accidents and how it would be addressed, the system can be used to take certain decisions when trying to improve the safety of the roads and when building new roads and bridges. It would be a very good source of data gathering, as Nigeria lacks a system where road accidents and users are being managed if properly managed, the system can be used to know and keep the number of vehicles and drivers in the country whether they have been involved in an accident or not.
Chapter Two
Literature Review
Introduction
In this section a critical study and review was performed on Observatory System, Information systems, Drupal Content Management System, MySql Database and other related research work from journals, articles, related project and other sources that have made contributions to the study of the subject in question. This study was done with the aim of providing an in-depth understanding of the topic, its importance, characteristics, problems and composite features of the system from the subject study.
The study of scholarly work related to project management and planning was done to facilitate and aid in gaining understanding of the subject matter from the basic to the thorough level which will eventually help in streamlining the development of the affected system. This study will help in outlining the project needs and where to focus on.
Data Collection
Data Collection is the process of gathering and measuring information on targeted variables in An established systematic fashion, which then enables one to answer relevant questions and evaluate outcomes.(Sapsford & Jupp, n.d.)
Data collection has been around for as long as people found the need of storing information about some certain things or finding solutions to a certain problem, people have used questionnaires to collect data and store the given data also asking a trusted person’s opinion is a form of data collection or the use of quantitative methods, all the above mentioned have been implored by people of various fields to source for data and make decisions based on the data they have gathered. Previously the major method in collecting data was the use of Questionnaires which is still used in so many places but the problem with Questionnaires is, how easy they can be tempered with and also lost. In some other occasions people find it hard to fill a Questionnaire because of the amount of time spent filling it or the data required is not connected to the situation that needs to be addressed, also redundant data might be collected or invalid data thus making the whole process void. In a data collection process the major problem is finding the right problem to be addressed, where in the case of this project the problem that its addressing is the automation, collection and visualization of all aspects of an accident in the country.
The method of Data Collection in this regard will be the use of Online forms found on the information system to be created and will be saved directly to the database for future use and references. Charts will be drawn so that the decision-making process will be simplified and any decision taken will be justified with data as proof. There are so many examples of existing digitized data collection some as surveys we might feel online for visiting a site. Or as simple as registering on a website the owner of the website can check what content the Users used most and what page they visit, thus making changes to generate more traffic on the website. After seeing what Data Collection is we would move ahead to see the need of a Decision Support System and how it can be applied here.
Decision Support System
Just like how Data collection has been shown to be a very key player for a long time in our lives, Decision Support Systems(DSS) have been in existence since the advent of computers and have aided us in making critical and correct decisions. DSS are created to help people make decisions by providing them information and analysis tools, DSS is a to model data and make quality decisions based upon it (Faculty, Science, & Management, n.d.).
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DSS is naturally constructed to back the solution of a certain problem or to assess an opportunity, it uses an interactive, flexible, adaptable computer based information system especially developed for supporting the solution, It uses data provides an easy to use interface and sometimes incorporate the decision maker’s insight. It supports all the phases of Decision making it can be used by a single user or on the web where it can be accessed by so many users at different locations.
Chapter Three
METHODOLOGY
System Analysis
This involved assessing the need for the system and possibilities of its implementation; I have also undertaken detailed analysis of the current system to understand more about the processes, information flows and work organization (Functional hierarchy).
It is a technique that once I applied, was able to decompose the proposed system into component pieces for the purpose of the studying how well those component parts work and interact with one another and so I can accomplish the main purpose. Systems analysis at the end is synthesis “and the goal of the proposed system is to create systems that can fix the problem of the current system and achieve the ultimate goal which is the registration, storing, visualization and monitoring road accidents in an efficient way”.
Hence, Analysis and synthesis, as scientific methods, always go hand in hand; they complement one another. Every synthesis is built upon the results of a preceding analysis, and every analysis requires a subsequent synthesis in order to verify and correct its results. In system analysis, the requirements was determined and considered based upon the study which includes both functional and non-functional requirements.
System Design
This was achieved using modeling tools and techniques to model both the process and the data that make up the system. The System design phase is generally into two sub phases, top-level and detailed design.
Top-level: focused on identification of the major System component and their functions. In the top-level, numbers of alternative System design concept are synthesized and evaluated in terms of variety of selection criteria, which include cost (implementation operation and maintenance), performance, satisfaction of requirements, development risk, flexibility for expansion/upgrading and political acceptability.
Detail design: was basically, specifying all of the System components and function in detail in the detailed design phase, decision was made concerning what were the element collected, how they were collected, how frequently they were collected, and at what level of detail they were aggregated.
Chapter Four
Experimentation and Results
Introduction
This chapter describes the implementation of the system as well as system testing. The implementation stage describes how the design of the Observatory system would be converted to a workable solution and installed in live working environment, while the system testing described the testing strategy that would ensure that the system is working effectively, and also to meet the user requirements.
The System was created and deployed on a live host system with a working server, the system was used to insert data and create users, also it gives anonymous users the opportunity to register. All registered users must be approved and assigned roles by the Administrator, without an Administrator to verify a user the user cannot access some parts of the pages. In this system the Major Administrator are the ICT staff from FRSC who will register and allocate roles to the users of the system, The Roles created are listed as follows;
- Road Officer
- Paramedics
- Senior Officers
- ICT(Administrator)
- Heads of Department concerned with the Management of Road Accidents and
- Normal Users
Chapter Five
Summary, Recommendation and Conclusion
Summary
The goal of this research is to build and implement an observatory system to monitor road accidents across Nigeria and be able to visualize the accidents, by their severity, locations, driver, vehicle type, casualty, and in some cases fatalities. There was need to improved quality of service, reduced operational cost, alleviate redundancy and inconsistency of data, reduced time consumption, increased information centralization and security, increased sense of direction towards what should be collected from an accident scene and participation in monitoring, gathering and dispersing information from the automated records and among the management, and also prevent the system being exposed to vulnerability by allowing authentication and for valid register input and better management output.
Recommendation
This system although it is able to gather information and visualize the stored data as charts to users still has more room for improvement, A system like this will be far more useful if it was able to leverage on modern technological advancement to project or predict where an accident might occur, with the use of machine learning tools and Application Programming Interfaces. If this is achieved then our roads will be very safe and also the rate of mortality from road accidents will be highly reduced. Which will have an indirect impact to the economy and growth of the country. This system can also be extended to collect data automatically without the use of user inputs, by the use of sensors.
Conclusion
The strength of this project is to facilitate easy Observation, Collecting and monitoring Road Accidents in Nigeria. Hence, it is cleared that all corresponding aims and objectives was effectively achieved through this medium. Furthermore, the application of the above recommendations will also guarantee the program strength. This project had really enhanced my understanding of the non-obvious activities and processes. I learned to bring the knowledge I acquired in class to solve a real problem existing in the real world. I am finally also glad that the goals I set to achieve at the beginning have virtually been met as the completed part is fully functional as proposed.
References
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- Faculty, G. M., Science, C., & Management, B. (n.d.). Decision support systems Faculty of Computer Science for Business Management , Romanian American University , Bucharest , Romania. Retrieved from ftp://ftp.repec.org/opt/ReDIF/RePEc/rau/jisomg/FA08/JISOM-FA08-A19.pdf
- Highway Loss Data Institute. (2015). Fatality Facts. Retrieved September 12, 2017, from http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general-statistics/fatalityfacts/gender
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