This Open Cities guide documents lessons learned from work in South Asia, providing an overview of the design and implementation of a community mapping program. To keep this guide up-to-date and truly open source, the online version of the document is hosted on GitHub welcoming comments and contributions.
Tag: 2014
Review of Open Source and Open Access Software Packages Available to Quantify Risk from Natural Hazards
This Understanding Risk publication created by the GFDRR Innovation Lab aims to highlight modelling tools’ strengths and also highlights some of the challenges that a user of a modelling tool might face.
Battling Ebola in Sierra Leone: Data Sharing to Improve Crisis Response
In 2014, the largest Ebola outbreak in history occurred in West Africa. A number of data-driven initiatives sought to improve the quality of information available to humanitarians working to address the crisis, including the Ebola GeoNode that OpenDRI worked on deploying.
Crowdsourced Geographic Information Use in Government
This report, Crowdsourced Geographic Information Use in Government, is based on a six-month study of the use of volunteered geographic information (VGI) by government.
Community Mapping for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management: Harnessing Local Knowledge to Build Resilience in the Philippines
In May 2013, the World Bank, the Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Institute of Environmental Science for Social Change launched a project on Community Mapping and LGU Decision Support Tools for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management.
In Malawi, Citizens Get Involved as Innovative Technologies Help Them Better Understand and Manage Disaster Risks
Citizens recently participated in a mapping exercise to provide data for early flood preparation in Malawi’s vulnerable districts. Mapping is the next step in the launch of the open source geospatial data platform in Malawi, providing vital information on natural disasters to district departments. More community engagement results in a clearer understanding of risks and disaster preparedness.
Can Mapping Help Increase Disaster Resilience?
According to Marc Forni of The World Bank, they can. Find out how the Open Cities project became a key platform for building resilience in this blog post from November 2014.
4 Years On, Looking Back at OpenStreetMap Response to the Haiti Earthquake
In 2014, Robert Soden reflected on the progress The World Bank and GFDRR made by becoming involved in the world of crowd sourced mapping. Now with a fully fledged program that leads dozens of projects worldwide and a host of strong partnerships, it is powerful to step back into his article and see where we’ve been and where OpenDRI has the potential to go.
IT community competes in Disaster Management software development
Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, is prone to natural disasters such as floods and fires. The World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction & Recovery and the Jakarta Disaster Management Agency held a competition to gather ideas on how information technology can be used in disaster situations.
Understanding Risk in an Evolving World
The last ten years have seen marked improvement in disaster risk assessment capabilities and communication efforts. As the period of the Hyogo Framework for Action comes to an end, Understanding Disaster Risk in an Evolving World – Emerging Best Practices in Risk Assessment and its accompanying Policy Note seek to inform the post-2015 discussions. Through an examination of more than 50 case studies, including some from World Bank and GFDRR teams, this reference guide by the GFDRR Innovation Lab offers best practices in the creation, communication, quality, and transparency of risk information. Topics range from satellite earth observations to community mapping and from risk financing to urban disaster risk modeling.
Open Data for Resilience Initiative Field Guide
The Open Data for Resilience Initiative Field Guide highlights the use of GeoNode and crowdsourcing, and is aimed at practitioners considering how open data may support a DRM project.
Computer Programmers Join the “Code for Resilience” Hackathon to Enhance Vietnam’s Resilience to Natural Disasters
“The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and the World Bank, in collaboration with HATCH! PROGRAM, a leading entrepreneur community and social incubator in Vietnam, will host the global event: “Hackathon Code For Resilience” in Vietnam, with support from the Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.”
Helping Build Resilient Communities
Following the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004, the Government of Indonesia began compiling a comprehensive approach to disaster risk management (DRM). The World Bank has helped through several small interventions, such as preparing the software program InaSafe and supporting the building of ‘safe’ schools, which have had wide-ranging impact and incorporate disaster risk management in overall development planning.
New disaster management software released worldwide: InaSAFE 2.0
A new version of software that can predict the social and human impact of natural disasters was released in Indonesia on 7 April 2014.
TechRepublic highlights OpenDRI’s “excellent new field guide”
In a TechRepublic article, Alex Howard gives the Open Data for Resilience Initiative Field Guide a shout out while discussing how releasing open data supports the United States federal government’s goal of improving community resilience against climate change and primes the pump for meaningful reuse by tech giants.