The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated the potential of natural disasters to inflict wide-scale damage to human life and the economy. While the global community attempts to manage the impact of this pandemic, other natural disasters continue to cause damage and further loss of life. Raising awareness and building resilience towards all-natural disasters, that are impacting lives globally, has never been more critical.
The need is particularly great in the Asia Pacific. APAC is located in the most seismically active area worldwide, and almost half of the world’s natural disasters happen in the Asia Pacific. Between 2014 and 2017, natural disasters have impacted 650 million people and taken 33,000 lives in APAC. The economic damage is equally daunting — China, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, the top four natural disaster-prone countries in Asia, are expected to lose $380 billion each year between 2016 and 2030 as a result of natural disasters.
How technology can help in natural disasters
Technological innovation has played an increasingly important role in advancing development across a range of industries; FinTech, InsurTech, MedTech among others. Similarly, there is huge potential for innovative technology to have a key role in disaster preparedness; through D-Tech (DisasterTech).
There are five major types of natural disasters, namely geophysical (e.g. earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, and volcanic activity), hydrological (e.g. floods), climatological (e.g. wildfires), meteorological (e.g. cyclones) and biological (e.g. pandemic).
Various tech solutions can help governments, communities, and businesses reduce the impact of these disasters. Early warning systems can provide valuable time to evacuate areas at risk, while maps that render real-time information can help citizens and first responders navigate safely and efficiently.
These innovations can turn the tide for many people in perilous situations. In 1991, poor communications and inadequate preparations left the villagers in Chittagong region of southeastern Bangladesh with no warning of the approaching tropical cyclone. The cyclone killed over 135,000 people and left 10 million homeless.
Almost three decades later, on May 21, 2020, Bangladesh and Eastern India were hit again by the season’s first tropical super cyclone Amphan. The casualties, however, were significantly lower due to a much-improved disaster response strategy, through upscaling of early warning systems, establishing public awareness, and enforcing buildings and shelters. 6 million people were successfully evacuated to shelters and fewer than 100 deaths occurred.
Other tech solutions can be used to prioritize resources and aid, reestablish communication and electricity supply, provide medical assistance, track and trace individuals, and distribute food, water, and sanitation.
More recently, we are seeing the use of tech in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Big data analysis on navigation searches are being used to reveal travel patterns and trends to predict outbreaks, while track and trace phone apps are used to identify individuals that may be infected.
The role of investors
While many view efforts in disaster preparedness as philanthropic in nature, the solutions to disaster resilience will not come entirely from the non-profit sector. The technological innovation that exists in the private sector may already have some of the answers, with a number of companies already generating interest from private investors in this space. Examples include One Concern, an artificial intelligence platform that measures resilience and predicts the impact of disasters, and Shield, creator of an AI-powered robot that is capable of autonomous outdoor and indoor intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations. Both companies completed Series B fundraising in 2019.
Like any start-up, tech solutions that deal with disaster preparedness and recovery require scalability, market access, infrastructure spending, and R&D to prosper. VCs and private investors can utilize their expertise and resources to become active partners in developing D-Tech solutions that are both profitable and save lives.
D-Tech Awards to support solutions
Recognising the potential for tech solutions in disaster preparedness, Prudence Foundation created the D-Tech Awards in 2019, in order to identify and support start-ups with scalable solutions that could protect lives before, during, and after natural disasters.
Last year, the competition received around 60 applications representing a wide range of technologies. The winner, who received USD $100k funding, was FieldSight, a digital platform used to monitor the quality of infrastructure projects in remote areas to reduce the risk of destruction when a natural disaster occurs. FieldSight is now used as a tool for meeting the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) project standards globally.
Israel-based SeismicAI, a commercial-grade earthquake early warning system, was the first runner-up. Seismic AI’s goal is to replace outdated seismic models with unique physics and machine learning systems and was selected by Microsoft’s AI for Good accelerator programme in April 2020. These are just some of the promising tech solutions the D-Tech Awards have supported.
With the need for disaster technology solutions being greater than ever, Prudence Foundation, in partnership with e27, AVPN, Antler, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, National Geographic, and others, will be launching the next D-Tech Awards in November 2020 to find and support lifesaving technologies.
The D-Tech Awards aims to support solutions for disaster resilience, whether through a private-sector tech start-up or a not-for-profit social enterprise. Recognising the different aims and revenue models of these companies, the D-Tech Awards will offer two categories for application (profit and not-for-profit) and judge in accordance with these objectives. If you are interested in the potential of D-Tech or would like to find out how you can contribute to this growing space, please take a few minutes to provide your insights here.
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