Background:
Bangladesh, a coastal country situated in Southeast Asia, is known as one of the most vulnerable countries in the earth susceptible to climate change. It is also one of the world’s topmost disaster-prone countries. Bangladesh positioned as the 6th most affected country in last 20years in the Long-Term Climate Risk Index of Germanwatch. The low lying land formation and climatic features of the country combined with highly dense population is contributing to natural disasters such as floods, cyclones, tornadoes and salinity issues due to sea level rise in the region. Over 80% (131million apprx) of the population are potentially exposed to seasonal & flush floods and more than 70% (115million apprx) to cyclones & strong storms. Moreover, impact of natural disasters has been causing high level of population displacement and migration.
Problem Statement:
A consistent lack of proper management in the responsive and reconstructive activities in the aftermath of the disasters, as well as the insufficient amount of useful data to aid in the activities, deprive the inhabitants of the affected area from the benefits of the responses. One of the several problems distinct to Bangladesh is the sheer lack of data concerning the shelters and similar safe places that people might turn to during a disaster. The same problem manifests itself in a much greater scale after disasters when response teams find themselves unable to reach the affected areas, since there is no dependable data. The absence on updated data on the localities, their population, transportation system, infrastructural condition, locations of safe drinking water and ecologically suitable places, emergency health facilities and services, etc. ensure that every disaster in the future will be followed by similar lack of proper response.
Solution:
Bangladesh Open Innovation Lab (BOIL) has devised a plan in order to aid in the effective mitigation and reduction of natural disasters, as well as providing ways to enhance the response and recovery, by developing a smartphone-based application along with a web interface. The smartphone application will be used by members of the local communities to make accurate and interactive data on the detailed condition of the affected area and the populace available in a much faster and coordinated way, and thus enabling the disaster response to be more efficient than ever before.
User Case:
With a community-based approach, this application prototype will be able to acquire an immense quantity of data concerning the infrastructure, locations of drinkable water, and ecological features, emergency service facilities which will be more accurate and updated than collected in any other way. This Geo spatial based app will ensure that the collected data is open, accessible, organized with a web interface. Fast decision making, the most crucial part of any emergency response activity will be guaranteed by this coordinated approach, as will be better disaster related policy-making. It will be bridging platform for aid agencies, government authorities, local relief workers and also serve as a mechanism for infrastructural development, data update, decision making and planning up to local government level.
