American Red Cross
             Piloting crowdsourcing enhancement
             for multi-hazard mobile applications



             During disasters, efficient and effective risk identification is imperative to saving lives and livelihoods.
             Access to preliminary data of hazard impacts improves operational decision-making, saving critical time in
             response efforts. Throughout Southeast Asia, however, this real-time data is often lacking in regions where
             disaster risk is highest.

             To help address this gap, the American Red Cross’ Global Disaster Preparedness Center (GDPC) developed
             a crowdsourcing enhancement for a popular mobile application to support data collection in the region,
CONTEXT




             where there is strong demand for innovative solutions. A key aim was for users to play an active role in
             data collection and dissemination, as many look to smart devices for information during disasters. By self-
             reporting hazard impacts in real time, citizens can now help ensure that vital data is communicated directly
             to decision-makers to better enable rapid, well-informed response. Users are also directed to key messages
             on how to further prepare and act in case of a disaster.

             The project aimed to build capacity of both disaster management and on-the-ground users in order
             to improve the speed and accuracy of disaster assessments and responses, while also reducing cost.
             The project also sought to empower users to directly engage in the disaster risk reduction process,
             strengthening the feedback loop of risk identification.
HIGHLIGHTS




             Philippine Red Cross is currently       From August to September           During the 2016 Auckland power
              exploring large-scale adoption      2016, nearly 14,000 devices were      outage, the feature received more
             of the new tool due to its cost-       registered for the application       than 700 responses out of 1000
              effective and scalable design.        across Indonesia, Philippines,      push notifications, helping inform
                                                    Myanmar, and New Zealand.              emergency response efforts.
             The team focused on adding the enhanced features to pre-existing Red Cross multi-hazard mobile applications
             to enable smart phone users to assist in quickly and accurately crowdsourcing information about current hazard
             impacts. 3-Sided Cube, a software development partner, built an algorithm for piloting in Indonesia, Myanmar, and the
             Philippines. This algorithm is triggered by affirmative repsonses from a user regarding disaster observations, which
APPROACH




             then sends push notifications to other users within a pre-defined nearby area. The data received is then heat-mapped
             to visually represent reported impacts, and forwarded to relevant disaster management officials.

             In Spring 2016, GDPC held in-country workshops with participating Red Cross national societies and partners. This
             served to increase technical capacity and collaboration in best utilizing the new tool. The feature was piloted in the
             summer of 2016 with an expanded scope, including New Zealand. During the pilot phase, nearly 14,000 devices were
             registered, and more than 800 responses were made - showing strong data collection during power outage, wind
             damage, and flooding scenarios.



                 “The Challenge Fund gave us the space to explore a new approach to collecting data
                   with a goal of enabling decision making and improved response during disasters.”
                                - Omar Abou-Samra, Sr Advisor, Programs and Partnerships,
                              IFRC Global Disaster Preparedness Center, American Red Cross


             Continued development of the crowdsourcing feature will focus on expansion. There is strong potential to efficiently
NEXT STEPS




             scale the tool across Red Cross national societies currently implementing existing multi-hazard platforms. Building in
             the new crowdsourcing feature would significantly expand its reach and improve real time disaster reporting, and in
             turn better inform immediate response teams across the Red Cross network. Furthermore, there are many integration
             opportunities with other external applications, web-based tools, and mobile platforms, which could considerably expand
             the pool of potential reporters and reach a broader community base.




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