FOSS4G 2025 | Early Action Starts with Local Data, Role of OSM in Community Preparedness

Presented by Asha Mustapher on 19 November 2025 16:00, at FOSS4G 2025 Auckland. Track: Community, Collaboration & Impact
Full presentation details - https://talks.osgeo.org/foss4g-2025/t... GEJKD8

In Tanzania, OMDTZ, CartONG, and Emergency-Response Team built a community-led dashboard using OSM and local knowledge. Instead of high-tech sensors, they used phones, maps, and local insights to collect data. Session shows how anticipatory action starts with trusted community input, enabling faster, informed disaster preparedness and response.

In disaster prone urban areas like Dar es Salaam, acting early can save lives. But anticipatory action requires localized, trustworthy, and community validated data. This talk explores how OpenMap Development Tanzania (OMDTZ),in partnership with CartONG and in collaboration with the Dar es Salaam Mult Agency Emergency Team (DarMAERT), developed a community dashboard powered by OpenStreetMap (OSM) data to support local early warning and preparedness.

Instead of relying solely on remote sensing or expensive early warning technology, this initiative focused on local knowledge and low cost open tools. Community members, especially youth and local leaders, were trained to map key risk features (flood hotspots, drainage points, safe shelters) using ODK tools.

At the core of the project is the DarMAERT Dashboard, a custom-built platform using OSM data to visualize high risk areas and inform decisions to rescue teams. It allows for, monitoring flood-prone zones with locally collected risk indicators and prioritizing emergency response based on exposure and vulnerability

More than 45 community members, including 15 local leaders and elders, were engaged in training. Their involvement ensured the data’s relevance and accuracy, while also building community ownership of the results. For example, ten-cell leaders and the elderly helped identify hidden flood-prone zones and accessible evacuation paths that were not evident in satellite imagery through participatory mapping

This presentation explores how local leaders, youth, and first responders collaborated to produce real time, actionable data focusing on flood preparedness. By combining mobile data collection, maps, and a digital dashboard, the project will enable DarMAERT to anticipate risks and act earlier, not just respond after a disaster.

This session will offer key takeaways:
-How community-generated OSM data can inform local early warning
-The role of local leaders in validating and sustaining open data
-Challenges in low-tech anticipatory systems and how we addressed them
-How to turn maps into tools for local governance and advocacy

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