TOPPAN Digital and OKI aim to scale Omuta flood alert system after pilot

Omuta City, in collaboration with TOPPAN Digital and Oki Electric Industry (OKI), has concluded a four-month pilot project testing a digital transformation (DX) solution designed to provide rapid information during flood events.

The pilot ran from 25 April to 31 August 2025 at two locations within the city, Yoshino and Kamiuichi. The system integrated OKI’s “Crisis Management Water Level Gauge” with TOPPAN Digital’s “PosRe,” a regional information aggregation and dissemination service. River level data collected by sensors was transmitted via LTE communication to the PosRe platform, allowing municipal officials to manage response status centrally and test information delivery to residents via a dedicated portal.

The collaboration birthed from a desire to address the increasing frequency of extreme weather events linked to climate change by automating river level monitoring and resident alerts. This project follows the devastating floods of July 2020, which caused over 2,000 houses in Omuta to be inundated. As climate change intensifies rainfall patterns beyond historical predictions, the city has prioritised the strengthening of its disaster prevention infrastructure. Both TOPPAN Digital and OKI operate development bases within “aurea,” Omuta’s innovation hub, under existing regional revitalisation agreements.

Results from the pilot indicated that the system functioned effectively in a real-world environment. An evaluation survey conducted among municipal departments, including the Disaster Crisis Management Office and the Basin Flood Control Promotion Office, confirmed that there was no time lag between water level detection and information dissemination. Staff praised the system for its intuitive user interface, high visibility of data, and customisability to specific municipal tasks.

The quantitative evaluation from city officials yielded scores of 3.7 out of 5.0 for both operability and setting comprehensiveness. Based on these findings, TOPPAN Digital and OKI intend to refine the solution’s features to meet specific municipal requirements. The companies aim for early commercialisation of the technology to support disaster resilience in other regions facing similar climate risks.