This paper addresses the importance of Free Open Source Software (FOSS) in systems responsible for disaster management, focusing on the study of SAHANA Project. The paper presents an analysis of the history and features of this FOSS, studying its advantages and how it has been deployed for mitigation and relief in real cases of disasters.
1 Introduction
New technologies represent a breakthrough in communication and information systems. The increase in the number of terminals connected to Internet, providing web services for communicating and sharing information, make of this technologies an essential tool for supporting the assistance of the humanitarian community in the aftermath of a disastercurrion2007open Within this broad scope of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) we count on systems specifically designed for disaster management, called Disaster Management Systems.
The commitment of governments for using these technologies in disaster response depends largely on the financial situation of the country and the preferences of the government investment plan. Its deployment is limited, overall in developing countries, due to the high cost that entails the development of a Disaster Management System or purchasing a license for such software.
As a solution to the problem in the previous paragraph, this paper focuses on introducing the Free Open Source Software (FOSS) SAHANA, a collaborative tool for disaster management, deployed for disaster relief in critical scenarios such as the 2010 earthquake in Haiticurrion2007open or the Japan earthquake and tsunami recently occurredjapan
The paper presents the problems that arise in the aftermath of a disaster to subsequently explain the use of SAHANA Disaster Management System for addressing them. The paper studies the technology used internally by SAHANA and the modules this software consists of. It will be mentioned the disasters areas where this software has been deployed and its recognition among the humanitarian community. Finally, the paper presents the conclusions about this FOSS technology.
2 Problems in the Aftermath of a Disaster
After a disaster has taken place, some problems show up in the affected area. The problems that arise are mainly related to aid management, missing people tracing, hospitals management and food and shelter supply. The degree of difficulty to cope with these problems depends on the magnitude of the disaster, frequently facing high-impact disasters, such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Therefore, it is crucial to count on a good coordination among the humanitarian professionals, organizations and volunteers involved in relief efforts. The quick response and effectiveness by these groups depends on their ability to coordinate and share information, getting in turn to minimize the pressure and anxiety to which they can be exposed.
3 The SAHANA Project
SAHANA is a Disaster Management System developed by the Lanka Software Foundation of Sri Lanka after the Indian Ocean Tsunami December of 2004. This project provides a solution for the humanitarian groups to deal with the coordination problems, registering and managing participant organizations, tracing missing people, managing the requests and donations of resources, mapping shelters and hospitals, etc. The main object is to that the work by these humanitarian groups is performed in the most possible effective and efficient manner.
3.1 Technology and Features
SAHANA Disaster Management System is a Web based Application consisting of independent and interconnected modules for addressing the different problems that can appear in the aftermath of a disaster. Its internal functionality based on LAMP, a software package consisting of open-source applications, such as Apache Web Server and MySQL for deploying web serviceslawton2005lamp In turn, SAHANA uses AdoDBcareem2007demonstration open-source abstraction library to manage the database. It makes possible to communicate with the database regardless of its type, that is, without having to rewrite the calls if we change, for example, from a MySQL to a PostgreSQL database. SAHANA uses Xajaxxajax library for creating its Web Applications. This technology provides the synchronization of the client application information with the one of the web-server, that is, the client does not have to refresh the web application to update it. Other important library is NuSoapnusoap a PHP library used by SAHANA for integrating Web Applications based on SOAP, WSDL and HTTP. Other feature of SAHANA is the use of UMN/Mapservermapserver for geospatial localization. UMN/Mapserver is an open-source Geographic Information System (GIS) developed by the University of Minnesota, supporting Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards.
Figure 1: SAHANA FOSS Disaster Management System
3.2 Modules
Following it is going to describe the main modules which SAHANA consists of, taking into account that this Disaster Management System is in continuous development and its open-source feature allows the inclusion of more modules that are not reflected in this paper. This fact remarks the quality of independence and interconnection that have the modules that make up this system.
3.2.1 Organization Registry
The purpose of this module is monitoring the organizations operating in the affected area, so that it is possible to coordinate their interventions and no repeat efforts. The module has as explanation text who is doing what and where‘, that is, the module collects contact information about the organization, where they are located, the resources that they have at their disposal and all the activities they are going to develop in the region.
3.2.2 Missing Person Registry
This module aims to increase the chances of finding missing people by reporting their personal information and the data of the people that are searching them. The module consists of the different menus to report the personal data of the person that is lost or reporting that a person has been found. It is possible to check if the person we are looking for has already been registered in the system and then we can get in touch with the people seeking him or her as well. The module provides the possibility of listing the missing and the found people, and it also counts on two boxes in the home page about the latest updates on missing and found people.
3.2.3 Disaster Victim Registry
. This module provides a database of all the victims of a disaster, e.g., displaced people, who can be registered individually or in a group, such as a company, family, society or a group of tourists. The registry information comprises personal data, pictures and biometric information, e.g., the fingerprint. It is possible to list the groups and view its members with the option of deepening information by group, shelter or incident. The home page also offers a box with the latest updates on reported victims.
3.2.4 Request/Aid Management
This module provides a database with all the information about the requests of food, water, medical equipment, etc. for a specific location. This allows the coordination of humanitarian groups to fulfill these demands. The module, in turn, offers the option of registering information about the donations, in order to count on this resources to satisfy the requests.
3.2.5 Situation Mapping
This module consists of a mapview of the disaster area using Geographic Informations Systems (GIS). The objective is offering an online map where it is possible to add markers to pinpoint the status of a person or a specific area, indicating in detail if they need help and what is the damage and disaster statuscareem2007gis
3.2.6 Shelter Registry
This module provides information about the shelters available for the victims. The options offered are the search of the shelter by name or address, adding a new shelter or editing an existing one. We can list all the shelters by location, infections or population density, with the possibility of locating them on the map provided.
3.2.7 Messaging and Alerting Module
This modules provides a service to send SMS and emails to any individual or group. It also offers the possibility of creating CAP messages. This module provides an important way of coordination and communication for the humanitarian groups. It is very useful for these groups to indicate periodically their coordinates to the headquarters of SAHANA so that they can keep track of them. It is useful in the same way for SAHANA headquarters to send information to the humanitarian groups, for example, if it is foreseen a disaster in the area and they need communicate it quickly.
3.2.8 Volunteer Management
Volunteer Management Module provides a portal for registering all the volunteers that are going to operate in the disaster area. Their skills, availability and the tasks that they have been assigned are registered. The module offers the option to list the volunteers and the projects they run. It provides the possibility of register new projects too, and offers the option of registering new people that want to participate as volunteer on these projectsmorelli2009revitalizing
3.2.9 Delphi Decision Module
This module provides a service to the experts for contributing and making decisions when managing a disaster. The advantages of the Delphi Decision Module are the prevention of interpersonal problems among the experts, the efficient use of the time, the variety of ideas and contrasting of opinions to reach a better solution to face the problems that arise in the aftermath of a disaster. The module provides options for problem management, recording the problems to be treated, a tool for voting experts opinions on these problems and tools for the interpretation of the resultswhite2010real
3.3 Deployments
SAHANA was developed in 2005 to assist the 2004 Sri Lanka tsunami. It was deployed to cover the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the 2006 Indonesia earthquake and Philippines mudslides. It was deployed for the 2007 Bangladesh Cyclone and Peru earthquake. In 2008 it was used for the Myanmar cyclone and the earthquake in China. In 2010 for the Haiti and Chile earthquakes, the Pakistan and Venezuela floods and the hurricane in Mexico. In 2011 it has been deployed for the foods in Colombia and more recently it is preparing its deployment in response of 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami for monitoring the situation as we can see in Figure 2 deployments
Figure 2: SAHANA Eden Disaster Management Platform Demo - 2011 Japan Earthquake
3.4 Recognition
The founder of Lanka Software foundation, Dr. Sanjiva Weeranwaranam, was honored in 2005 with a Red Hat Summit Award for his relief effort during the Sri Lanka Tsunami of 2004 with the initiative SAHANA.
SAHANA was awarded with the Social Benefit Award from the Free Software Foundation in 2006morelli2009revitalizing the same year when it is mentioned in the documentary The Codebreakers by BBC World. The documentary addresses an study about the FOSS in developing countries and the opportunities that it offers for the development of this areascodebreakers
Another recognition for this software was in June 2006 when it was awarded as the Project of the Month by Sourceforgesourceforge This very year SAHANA was also awarded with the Software Good Samaritan Awardsamaritan
SAHANA Software Foundation has participated from 2006 to 2010 in the Google Summer of Code and for this year 2011 it has been selected for taking part as a mentoring organizationsummercode
3.5 Conclusions
SAHANA Disaster Management System is an important solution for coordinating the efforts of the humanitarian groups after a disaster has occur. It is free software, which comprises that it can be uses by nations that cannot afford this kind of software. It is open-source, which entails that it is customizable and can be adapted to different necessities or disaster scenarios.
A remarkable feature of this software is its adaptability to different requirements in a disaster due to its ability to accommodate different modules that can work both independently and interconnected, sharing information.
SAHANA gives confidence due to the number of scenarios where it has been deployed and its recognition. It has been successfully deployed in high-impact disasters, such as the 2010 Haiti Tsunami, collaborating in this disaster with important organizations such as Google, InSTEDD or Ushahidihaitiwiki
One essential point in the developing of an Humanitarian FOSS like SAHANA is the fact of engaging students in collaborating. This sort of projects encourage their participation because they are making contributions to software that is used in real life whose aim is to do good to the communitymorelli2009revitalizing Humanitarian FOSS has the support of the university community that focuses on training students to participate in such projects so that they can contribute in assisting the efforts of local and international organizationsfossproject
