Manila: A smartphone app against natural disasters

MapaKalamidad was launched in the Philippines with the aim of monitoring typhoons, floods, eruptions and earthquakes and preventing damage, which is increasing due to climate change. A similar platform has already been active for 10 years in Indonesia. These are systems that collect information shared on social networks in real time.

Manila (AsiaNews) - A smartphone application that will serve to anticipate and follow the evolution of catastrophic natural events and thus contribute to alleviating their effects: it is called MapaKalamidad.ph and was launched yesterday.

According to its creators, it is an initiative that "allows the population to make crucial decisions about safety and navigation during disaster events instead of concentrating decision-making capabilities in a small group of individuals sitting in a control center."

The aim is to reduce the enormous costs in material terms and in human lives caused by typhoons, floods, eruptions and earthquakes in an archipelago known for its instability which in recent years has been aggravated by climate change.

The underlying principle of the app is the direct sharing of information between all users on ongoing events, so as to have a constantly updated situation, in real time and reported on a map, which will allow the population to make decisions necessary for their safety and authorities to coordinate an effective response.

Two aspects, that of immediacy and that of sharing, also underlined by Nashin Mahtani, head of the Indonesian non-governmental organization Foundation for Disaster Mapping (Yayasan Peta Bencana, Disaster Map Foundation).

A similar platform has in fact been active for over a decade in Indonesia and in the Philippine archipelago it was launched in a trial version in 2020 only in the municipality of Quezon City and in the province of Pampanga, to be extended nationally in 2022, but exclusively for regarding floods.

However, born as an application, today MapaKalamidad - confirms Mahtani - "uses already active social channels (such as FaceBook Messenger and Telegram). This allows us to reach millions of users every day." Its interconnection with radio and short messaging (SMS) services is also important.

Due to its potential, the initiative was supported by public structures involved in identifying risks and combating disasters, including the government Office for Civil Defense, the Philippine Civil Protection, whose operational director, Cesar Idio, underlined how “Initiating and developing initiatives in the area of information sharing supports various aspects of our disaster risk reduction work.”

• Philippines
• disaster
• application
• map
• data
• sharing