Philippines: Adoption of Indonesia's Open Source Disaster Mitigation Tool

The website Futuregov Asia reported that the Philippines are planning to improve their disaster mitigation efforts by adopting an Indonesian mapping and planning tool: "The Department of Science and Technology revealed plans to adopt InaSAFE, a disaster mitigation technology from Indonesia, to its Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazard (NOAH) project in a bid to improve disaster planning and preparedness in the country. InaSAFE, or Indonesia Scenario Assessment for Emergency, is an open source software that produces realistic natural hazard impact scenarios to help decision makers in their disaster planning, preparedness and response activities.

It combines data from various authoritative sources to provide insights into the likely impacts of future disaster events. The software is focused on examining, in detail; the impacts by a single hazard would have on specific sectors. It gives users a heightened situational awareness of the areas affected and those that are likely to be affected, how many people will need to be evacuated and what roads will be closed among others. According to an official statement, NOAH will adopt Indonesia’s InaSAFE because it has a lot in common with the Philippines, especially in topography and natural hazards.