CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2013/oss mapFeeds

Background

The Sahana Software Foundation is dedicated to the mission of saving lives by providing information management solutions that enable organizations and communities to better prepare for and respond to disasters. It is an open source software platform which provides a range of solutions for Disaster Management practitioners to help them reduce the impact disasters have on our communities through tracking the needs of the affected populations & coordinating the responding agencies & their resources.It can be accessed from the web or locally from a flash drive, allowing it to be used in environments with poor internet. Local & Web versions can be configured to synchronize to allow data to be shared between them. These features are designed to help Disaster Management practitioners to better mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters more effectively and efficiently.

Sahana Eden is designed to be rapidly configured and customized to support the diverse business processes used within Disaster Management. Sahana Eden's modular design allows different pieces of functionality to be enabled and disabled as required providing flexible solutions for changing contexts. The application can be configured to secure sensitive information, while also making data which needs to be shared available in a variety of different formats including Microsoft Excel and PDF. To ensure that Sahana Eden is accessible to every country, it can be translated into multiple languages.

Core modules and outlines

Organization Registry

Many diverse organizations are involved in Disaster Management, from responding to disasters to strengthening communities to providing support to people in need. Sahana Eden’s Organization Registry can track what organizations are active in different contexts, providing opportunities for collaboration and coordination.

Project Tracking

By telling you Who’s Doing What, Where, and When, Sahana Eden provides a valuable tool to help organizations responding to disasters know where the greatest needs are and coordinate with others who are engaged in similar work.

Human Resources

The most important part of Disaster Management is the people.Whether they are community volunteers or staff working for different organizations, the Human Resources module can help manage the people involved. It will track where they are, what skills they have and help ensure that everyone is effectively engaged with the work that needs to be done. Sahana Eden can also be used to provide a contact list to ensure that the right people can be contacted at the right time.

Inventory

Whether organizations are supplying basic essentials of life to people affected by natural disasters or giving communities the tools they need to restore their livelihoods, Sahana Eden can be used to manage inventories of items and match requests for items with warehouses and other facilities which have them available. Operationally, Sahana Eden can be used to record and automate transactions for sending and receiving shipments. Sahana Eden can support multiple Catalogs of Items as well as providing alternative items to ensure more effective use of supplies. Sahana Eden can be configured to load multiple catalogs including a generic list of items and/or the IFRC Emergency Item Catalog.

Assets

A wide range of assets are needed to respond to disasters, including vehicles to transport people and relief items, radio equipment to provide communication where telecommunication infrastructure has been destroyed, and generators to provide backup power. Sahana Eden is able to manage assets, track where they are, who they have been assigned to, and what condition they are in. This ensures that assets are used effectively and efficiently.

Assessments

Sahana Eden can be used to collect and analyze information from assessments to help organizations more effectively plan their disaster management activities. Different assessment templates can easily be designed and imported into Sahana Eden to support assessments for different organizations in different contexts. Data can either be entered into an interactive web form or imported via an Excel template.

Scenarios and Events

To help organizations better plan for disasters, Sahana Eden can be used to plan for different scenarios, including recording what human resources, assets, facilities and tasks will be needed to effectively respond. When an incident occurs events can be created from a scenario template to allocate the resources and alert people of the need to respond.

Map

Sahana Eden has fully integrated mapping functionality which allows any location-based data to be visualized on a map. This information can also be searched using a map-based boundary selection. Maps provide situational awareness which is essential when either planning to prepare for or respond to a disaster. Sahana Eden supports many standard formats for overlaying data on maps from other sources and Geographical Information Systems (GIS), for example natural hazard risks, population or weather.

Shelter Management

When disasters are widespread and result in population displacement, understanding and tracking the landscape of shelters - and the people in them - is a critical activity. The Shelter Registry provides functionality to list and track information on shelters and on the people arriving and departing. Shelter details include location, services provided, responsible organization and contacts, demographics, and needs. In addition, individual person data includes name, age, relatives, status, health, and many other details to provide a clear understanding of population demographics within the site.

Messaging

In the complex domain of Disaster Management, communication is critical. Sahana Eden provides support for messages to be sent by Email, SMS, Twitter and Google Talk. Distribution Groups can be set up to allow messages to be easily sent to many people at once. Users are able to search for specific information and subscribe to receive update messages when new information is added.

References

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