Sahana FOSS Disaster Management System
Encyclopedia
The Sahana Free and Open Source Disaster Management System was conceived during the 2004 Sri Lanka tsunami
. The system was developed to help manage the disaster and was deployed by the Sri Lankan government's Center of National Operations (CNO), which included the Center of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA). A second round of funding was provided by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). The project has grown, with deployments during other disasters such as the Asian Quake in Pakistan (2005)
, Southern Leyte Mudslide Disaster in Philippines (2006)
and the Jogjakarta Earthquake in Indonesia (2006)
.
Sahana currently has three projects: Eden, being developed in Python
; Agasti, being developed in PHP
; and the localization project, L10n.
Sahana also includes tools for synchronization between multiple instances, allowing for responders or district offices to capture data on victims in the field and exchange the data with the other field offices, headquarters or responders.
that hit Sri Lanka
on December 26, 2004, resulted in a massive outpouring of support for the relief of the nearly one million people that it affected. The Sahana was created for information management and collaboration in the aftermath.
Past Deployments
, where the ideals of FOSS are applied for building humanitarian-ICT applications or applications built to help alleviate human suffering. The community consists of a mailing list and an active wiki with membership including Emergency Management practitioners, Humanitarian Consultants, Crisis Management Academics and Free and Open Source developers from around the world. Domain representation in this group includes members from ISCRAM, UNDP, Red Cross, IBM, Saravodaya (largest NGO in Sri Lanka), Australian Fire Services, etc.
They have been recognized by the Free Software Foundation
(FSF), where it inspired a new FSF Award for Projects of Social Benefit, which is broader in coverage than humanitarian-FOSS and by the UNDP IOSN on their Humanitarian-FOSS Portal.
Sahana has been presented at numerous conferences/workshops/events and already has one paper accepted for an international conference. A paper on Sahana and Disaster Management was accepted for the 2nd International Conference on Information and Automation 2006. Due to the lack of previous research in ICT for Disaster Management, research has played a key role in Sahana's development.
Sahana is also a participating project in Google Summer of Code
.
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
. The system was developed to help manage the disaster and was deployed by the Sri Lankan government's Center of National Operations (CNO), which included the Center of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA). A second round of funding was provided by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). The project has grown, with deployments during other disasters such as the Asian Quake in Pakistan (2005)
2005 Kashmir earthquake
The 2005 Kashmir earthquake was a major earthquake centered in Pakistan-administered Kashmir known as Azad Kashmir, near the city of Muzaffarabad, affecting Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It occurred at 08:52:37 Pakistan Standard Time on 8 October 2005...
, Southern Leyte Mudslide Disaster in Philippines (2006)
2006 Southern Leyte mudslide
A massive rock slide-debris avalanche occurred on 17 February 2006 in the Philippine province of Southern Leyte that caused widespread damage and loss of life. The deadly landslide followed a ten-day period of heavy rains and a minor earthquake of magnitude 2.6 on the Richter scale...
and the Jogjakarta Earthquake in Indonesia (2006)
May 2006 Java earthquake
The May 2006 Java earthquake occurred at 05:54 local time on 27 May 2006 , in the Indian Ocean around south-southwest of the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, near Galur, on the southern side of the island of Java , 10 km below the seabed, with a magnitude of 6.2, according to the U.S....
.
Sahana currently has three projects: Eden, being developed in Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
; Agasti, being developed in PHP
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
; and the localization project, L10n.
Functionality
The Sahana project aims to provide a set of modular, web-based disaster management applications.- Missing Person Registry: An online bulletin board of missing and found people. It captures information about the people missing and found, and also the information of the person seeking them.
- Organization Registry: A collaborative “Who is doing what, where” tool which enables tracking of the relief organizations and other stakeholders working in the disaster region. It captures information about the places where each organisation is active and the range of services being provided.
- Request/Pledge Management System: An online repository where all relief organizations, relief workers, government agents and camps can effectively match requests of aid and supplies to pledges of support. It tracks aid provision from request to fulfillment.
- Shelter Registry: Keeps track of the location and basic data of shelters in the region. It also provides a geospatial view to plot the location of the camps in the affected area.
- Inventory Management: Tracking the location, quantities, expiry of supplies stored for utilization in a disaster
- Situation Awareness: Gives an overview of the event and allows people to add information on what is happening on the ground. It features the ability to plot a note and a photo with additional information on a Map, so that people can collaboratively capture the current disaster situation.
- Volunteer coordination: Helps NGOs keep track of all their volunteers, their contact information, project allocation, availability and skills to help them distribute staff resources.
Sahana also includes tools for synchronization between multiple instances, allowing for responders or district offices to capture data on victims in the field and exchange the data with the other field offices, headquarters or responders.
Historic Trigger
The tsunami2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
that hit Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
on December 26, 2004, resulted in a massive outpouring of support for the relief of the nearly one million people that it affected. The Sahana was created for information management and collaboration in the aftermath.
Past Deployments
- Tsunami - Sri Lanka 2005 - Officially deployed in the CNO for the Government of Sri Lanka
- AsianQuake - Pakistan 2005 - Officially deployed with NADRA for the Government of Pakistan
- Southern Leyte Mudslide Disaster - Philippines 2006 - Officially deployed with the NDCC and OCD for the Government of Philippines
- Sarvodaya - Sri Lanka 2006 - Deployed for Sri Lanka's largest NGO
- Terre des Hommes - Sri Lanka 2006 - Deployed with new Child Protection Module
- Yogjakarta Earthquake - Indonesia 2006 - Deployed by ACS, urRemote and Indonesian whitewater association and Indonesian Rescue Source
- Peru Earthquake - Peru 2007 - Deployed and localized into Spanish.
- Myanmar Cyclone - Myanmar 2008- Currently working in progress to deploy and localize into Burmese.
- Haiti Earthquake - Haiti 2010- Currently working in progress to deploy and localize into Port-au-Prince and Haiti.
Humanitarian-FOSS Community
Sahana has developed into a community founded by a humanitarian consultant, Paul Currion, and the Sahana project lead, Chamindra de Silva. Much of their work is based on the more generic ideals of Humanitarian-FOSSHumanitarian-FOSS
Free and Open Source Software represents a paradigm shift in the way software is built. The development of software is not by strict commercially or government driven hierarchies, but by global communities that structure themselves in meritocracies based on contribution...
, where the ideals of FOSS are applied for building humanitarian-ICT applications or applications built to help alleviate human suffering. The community consists of a mailing list and an active wiki with membership including Emergency Management practitioners, Humanitarian Consultants, Crisis Management Academics and Free and Open Source developers from around the world. Domain representation in this group includes members from ISCRAM, UNDP, Red Cross, IBM, Saravodaya (largest NGO in Sri Lanka), Australian Fire Services, etc.
They have been recognized by the Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
(FSF), where it inspired a new FSF Award for Projects of Social Benefit, which is broader in coverage than humanitarian-FOSS and by the UNDP IOSN on their Humanitarian-FOSS Portal.
Research
The Sahana Project has resulted in independent research projects. Professor Louiqa Raschid of the University of Maryland is leading/guiding a team in Sahana and Disaster Management research.Sahana has been presented at numerous conferences/workshops/events and already has one paper accepted for an international conference. A paper on Sahana and Disaster Management was accepted for the 2nd International Conference on Information and Automation 2006. Due to the lack of previous research in ICT for Disaster Management, research has played a key role in Sahana's development.
Sahana is also a participating project in Google Summer of Code
Google Summer of Code
The Google Summer of Code is an annual program, first held from May to August 2005, in which Google awards stipends to hundreds of students who successfully complete a requested free or open-source software coding project during the summer...
.
Recognition & Awards
- Free Software Foundation Award for Social Benefit - March 2007
- BBC TV Documentary the "Code Breakers"
- Sourceforge Project of the Month - June 2006
- Software 2006 Good Samaritian Award
- Red Hat User Awards
- Stockholm Challenge Finalist