Stories of Impact A series highlighting achievements in disaster risk management Harnessing Geospatial Data through GeoNode REGION: GLOBAL PROJECT DESCRIPTION: FOCUS: RISK IDENTIFICATION Effective risk assessment and disaster recovery efforts can only be as good as the data that informs them. With missing or inadequate risk information hindering resilience in many developing countries, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) developed GeoNode, a web-based, open source software that enables users to access, share, and visualize geospatial data. The platform was built on the principles of open source data, eliminating overhead costs and allowing customization to specific contexts and challenges, In the broadest sense, GeoNode can be viewed as a communally-maintained technological solution to a set of common, RESULTS: overlapping problems shared by a number of different organizations. • Since 2009, GFDRR and its partners have Today, GeoNode is a public good relied on by hundreds of invested nearly $3.5 million in developing organizations around the world, and which receives a continuously GeoNode as an open source geospatial increasing investment from a growing number of partners. These data platform, achieving more than a 200% partners form the core of a thriving, mutually beneficial ecosystem return on investment over the last 8 years. of users and contributors — an ecosystem that includes NGOs, government agencies from a variety of countries, commercial • Many prominent organizations, including participants, and motivated individuals. GeoNode has been OCHA, USAID, NASA, the Global successfully deployed in a number of regions to aid with disaster Earthquake Model, and others have utilized preparedness and emergency relief, as well as a diverse range of the GeoNode platform to access, share, and applications including city planning, agriculture management, and the visualize important geospatial information. recent fight against the Ebola virus. • After Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), GeoNode was used to create more than 70 layers of geospatial data, from damage assessments to situation reports. The data and quick analysis capability contributed to recovery efforts (available at Yolandadata.org). CONTEXT: Early in GFDRR’s operational history, the uncertain quality of available risk information was severely hindering efforts to build resilience in developing countries. In particular, the Central American Probabilistic Risk Assessment (CAPRA) program suffered from lack of high-quality, recently-updated, standards-compliant geospatial data. In addition to the lack of standards, often data was never used or even lost altogether as a result of there being no reliable place to store and share it, representing a major waste of time and resources. GFDRR’s Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI) began supporting the GeoNode project in 2009 and continues that support to the present. Over the past seven years, OpenDRI’s involvement has helped GeoNode grow, in both technical and organizational terms, to become a major geospatial data platform with many different applications and stakeholders. OpenDRI has been particularly focused on GeoNode’s applicability to disaster risk management, but GeoNode is now a public good that addresses a diverse range of applications. APPROACH: At the outset of the project, GFDRR and OpenGeo (a geospatial company now known as Boundless Geo) were able to identify a common set of problems and challenges around geospatial information. The two organizations set out to create a flexible, open source, and web-based solution to better equip organizations to access, share, and visualize these important datasets. GFDRR invested in the platform in a number of ways, including employing a dedicated software developer, hosting a number of internatinoal coding events, and cultivating a growing online community of practitioners. The GFDRR team has helped several government agencies adapt the GeoNode platform to their own needs, like the Malawi Spatial Data Platform (MASDAP). GFDRR facilitated local community mapping An adaptation of the GeoNode platform in Malawi activities in the country that mapped 450 residential areas, with the data uploaded to the MASDAP GeoNode to inform resilience efforts. LESSONS LEARNED: NEXT STEPS: Organized and accessible geospatial data can enable GeoNode’s long-term success is due, in part, to the way GFDRR and a better understanding of risk. GeoNode enables its partners have structured the project to encourage participation administrators to store and curate data with a uniform by users with similar needs, creating a self-sustaining open source standard for styling and metadata. This data can be easily community that functions independently of the continued presence fed into other disaster risk management software to of any particular long-term sponsor. By training individuals in both create risk assessments and hazard scenarios to inform use and development alongside major international fora, hosting policy, such as GFDRR’s ThinkHazard! - a new web-based special coding sessions to improve operation and expand capabilities tool enabling non-specialists to consider the impacts of of the platform, and creating new partnerships with non-traditional disasters on new development projects. stakeholders, GFDRR has empowered the GeoNode community to Geospatial data can help after disaster, as well. In January overcome challenges and scale up innovation. GFDRR will continue to 2015, Malawi experienced one of the most devastating invest in these areas to ensure growth and effectiveness for both the oods in its history. A ecting 1,150,000 people, 106 died, community and the platform. 336,000 were displaced, and countless livelihoods were lost from crop destruction in a country relying heavily on subsistence farming. In the aftermath of the disaster, data Contact from the MASDAP GeoNode was used along with InaSAFE, Alanna Simpson another GFDRR-supported tool, to help identity and asimpson1@worldbank.org document exposed infrastructure and facilities. Learn more at www.gfdrr.org *ALL MONETARY VALUES IN USD