Exploring the Role of Technology in Disaster Response and Management
Context
Globally, approximately 60,000 people die annually because of natural disasters, which makes 0.1% of the total deaths, and on average, the disasters affect 0.15% to 0.5% of the GDP annually¹. In absolute terms, the average economic loss in the past decade has been 170 billion USD per year². However, these averages vary widely (i) across developed and developing countries, and (ii) across regions (depending on the geo-climatic conditions). Asia and the Pacific region is the most disaster-prone region in the world. From 1970–to 2014, almost 45% of the disasters occurred in Asia and the Pacific region alone. During this period, 56% of the deaths due to disasters were recorded in this region, as against 44% of the deaths in the rest of the world³.
The exposure and vulnerability to disasters is often more for the disadvantaged populations. Their precarious circumstances and lesser access to resources adversely affect their resilience and forces them into a vicious cycle of poverty. It is often more difficult for them to recover and cope with the losses incurred. The geographical and socio-economic disadvantage of these regions calls for better disaster management and holistic response.
Case of Indonesia
Indonesia, a flood-prone country, where one in four people live in high-risk flood zones⁴, has adopted a novel approach towards improving disaster preparedness and response. They have developed a platform, PetaBencana.id (see Fig.1), in collaboration with the Jakarta Emergency Management Agency and Twitter Inc⁵, and financial assistance from USAID. PetaBencana.id (Peta — map, Bencana — disasters) is a digital platform for reporting disasters like floods, haze, earthquake, volcano, etc. in Indonesia. This platform allows the citizens to report disasters on a map (just like how we can add places on Google maps) via various social media like Twitter, Facebook and Telegram. The platform also displays information from conventional sources like government authorities, facilitating the collation and sharing of disaster reports in real-time. The public reports expire after sometime depending on the disaster type and then they are not visible on the map making the platform provide information in real-time.
Apart from allowing direct reporting on the platform, the AI-assisted humanitarian chat bots send prompts on various social media platforms (like Twitter, Telegram, and Facebook) when disaster-related posts are made. It nudges citizens to report any disaster information on the platform. The interactive platform allows citizens to navigate better at the times of disaster, focus their relief efforts, and aids the overall disaster preparedness and response by the government and other concerned civil society organisations.
The platform uses open source software, which is available for the general audience to explore or contribute to. The source code of the platform is available under MIT Licence, meaning, it is freely available for replication (with proper acknowledgments) in other geographies and contexts. All the information collected by the platform is made available via open-API and in disaster reporting standards (CAP) making it easy to integrate with any other initiatives.
In the case of Indonesia, while addressing disaster preparedness and response, Citizen Participation and Citizen-Led Action, and Government Partnership were given primacy. The Indonesian government continuously contributes in developing the platform and has endorsed it, which has led to the increased visibility and credibility of the platform and its adoption among the citizens. In the later phases, civil society organisations, volunteers and other concerned stakeholders were also made a part of disaster preparedness and response. These collaborative efforts have contributed immensely to PetaBencana’s success in Indonesia.
Role of CivicDataLab
CivicDataLab started the partnership with Yayasan PetaBencana in December 2019, where CDL was the technology partner. When the first phase of the project started, PetaBencana platform was limited to reporting floods in four cities of Indonesia. The first phase of the platform development primarily focused on adding new provinces to cover the entire country, and expanding to reporting of other disasters. At the end of the first phase, six types of disasters (earthquake, flood, volcano, haze, forest fire, and wind) could be reported either directly on a map, or through various social media chat bots, anywhere in Indonesia.
In the second phase of the project, we are developing features for the platform and enhancing the user experience on the platform. We are adding features such as distinguishing reports that are verified, integrating and displaying data shared by the government, number of reports made in any specific region, sending thank you messages once the reports are made and follow-up messages prompting the users to update the status of the report, among others. Thus, the platform intends to facilitate collection and sharing of more actionable information by the end of the second phase.
Case of India
India is one of the ten most disaster-prone countries in the world, with 27 of its states and union territories being prone to disasters. The geo-climatic and socio-economic conditions within the country make it vulnerable to disasters. Around 60% of the land is prone to earthquakes, 12% of the land is prone to floods, over 75% of its coastline is prone to cyclones and tsunamis, 68% of the cultivable area is prone to drought and hilly areas are prone to landslides and avalanches. According to Prevention Web statistics, approximately 1.5 lakh people were killed and about 150 crore people were affected due to the disasters between 1980–2010. During this time, the loss of property and infrastructure was estimated at around 4800 crore USD⁶. These vulnerabilities necessitate exploring ways of better disaster preparedness and response in the Indian context as well. Though factors like urbanisation have added to the vulnerability faced by both these countries, their geographical, social, economic, and political contexts are different, which makes it necessary to understand these in the Indian context.
What we plan to do!
Given this context, and the engagement with Yayasan PetaBencana over a couple of years, CDL has been interested in exploring the feasibility of a platform like PetaBencana in the Indian context. We plan to develop our understanding about the current situation of disaster management, preparedness and response in the country.
We plan to conduct this study through primary research with the concerned departments (like the State Disaster Management Authorities, Public Works Roads department, etc.) and other stakeholders (like civil society organisations, volunteer groups, etc.) as well as a desk review of the material available. We aim to understand:
- Response to disasters by various stakeholders
- Decision making at the time of disasters
- Allocation and distribution of resources and other relief activities
- Disaster reporting
- Citizen engagement
- Measures taken post the disaster event
We plan to start this exercise with Assam, one of the most disaster-prone states in the country.
Reasons for selecting Assam
The Open Contracting India (OCI) team at CDL, in close collaboration with Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) has been working in Assam on public procurement data around floods. The team has been working on making the flood-related public procurement data open and accessible.
The team has developed a working relationship with the Finance department, Assam Disaster Management Authority, Flood and River Erosion Management Agency Of Assam (FREMAA), and a few district administration offices in Assam. As part of this exercise, we are trying to familiarise ourselves with the functioning of these departments; the information collected, shared, and used by them for decision making; the flow of data and finances within and across these departments; identifying and interacting with local researchers, civil society organisations, volunteer groups, etc.; among others.
Though with the PetaBencana project we have been technology partners, with this feasibility study, we aim to understand the geographical, political, social, and economic context of disaster preparedness and response. Our growing familiarity and relationship with a few concerned departments in Assam will aid the research required for this study.
As we progress, we hope to develop a better understanding of disaster preparedness and response, and potential interventions. We also wish to keep sharing our learnings on our way! In the meanwhile, any leads, connections, suggestions, feedback regarding this study will be very useful.
References:
- Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2014) — “Natural Disasters”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/natural-disasters'
- “The Impact of Disasters and Crises on Agriculture and Food Security: 2021.” FAO, March 17, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb3673en.
- Sung Eun Kim, Ho Miu David Li, Jonghyo Nam, Alf Blikberg, Nia Charrett, Kelly Hayden, Donna Mei-Ling Park, et al. “Overview of Natural Disasters and Their Impacts in Asia and the Pacific, 1970–2014.pdf.” Technical paper. Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction Division, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, March 2015. https://www.unescap.org/resources/overview-natural-disasters-and-their-impacts-asia-and-pacific-1970-2014.
- Jun Erik Rentschler, Christoph Klaiber, and Jian Vun. “Floods in the Neighbourhood: Mapping Poverty and Flood Risk in Indonesian Cities,” April 14, 2021. https://blogs.worldbank.org/eastasiapacific/floods-neighborhood-mapping-poverty-and-flood-risk-indonesian-cities.
- The project started as a pilot in Jakarta, which was later expanded to the entire country in 2020. In 2020, it was also adopted as MapaKalamidad.ph for two cities and later expanded to the entire Philippines by 2022, to report disasters. It has been adopted as Smart Saigon in Ho Chi Minh city to address the issue of flooding and traffic congestion as well.
- “Disaster Management in India.” Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, 2011.
About the authors
Bianca is a researcher interested in issues of urban governance. At CivicDataLab, she works with the Better Cities vertical.
Deepthi Chand is a data and tech evangelist motivated towards understanding the role technology plays in making civic engagements better in the country. At CivicDataLab, he works with Better Cities and Education verticals to understand and improve technology implementation using Open Source tools.
You can reach us via email at bettercities@civicdatalab.in
