RISK MANAGEMENT FOR THE COMOROS ISLANDS

OBJECTIVES

The project objective is to acquire and consolidate the knowledge needed to increase resilience to natural risks, using open source data and applications.

The specific project objectives are as follows:

• nationwide collection of information on natural risks and digitalisation in the form of geo-spatial data;
• circulation of data on a knowledge sharing web platform;
• training of local users on identified problems and technologies used.

DEVELOPMENT

The project employed a cascade methodology with a series of macro-phases, each one including specific activities to reach the planned objectives and deliver the requested products on schedule.

The macro-phases of fundamental importance for the development of the project were:

• analysis of the current status, with a study of the situation before the project began and analysis of available data, software applications, hardware infrastructure and domain knowledge of users;
• design of the various project components, including the data model to structure the central database, analysis of the platform functional requirements, required software applications and the overall architecture, plus development of a user training program;
• implementation of the activities covered by the design project, including physical modelling of the database, input of data into the database, development, personalisation and installation of the platform. The final stage was roll-out of the planned training activities.

The activities were executed in accordance with the directives suggested by the World Bank, using the procedures and technologies of the geo-spatial content on the OpenStreetMap (OSM) knowledge sharing platform. These activities can be summarised as follows:

• collection of significant information through crowdsourcing surveys, with direct involvement of local institutions and private citizens, subdivided into groups and assigned intervention areas;
• identification of the pilot areas where operations will be focused (the town of Moroni, the prefecture of Dimani) and of the key objects (buildings, roads) to be surveyed for the purposes of natural risk management;
• formation of work groups.

Data was collected in two phases:

• remote digitalisation with creation of building and road geometries;
• field collection of data using mobile devices such as pre-configured tablets and smartphones.

CHARACTERISTICS

The main platform characteristics are as follows:

• client/web server model, with a Geospatial Content Management System (Geo-CMS) structure, a geospatial information portal with management of content including documents (Doc, Pdf, etc.), spreadsheets (Excel), images, video, etc.;
• public access with individual profiled credentials, to safeguard confidential information; standard GIS platform navigation functions, visualisation of geo-spatial layers, theme maps, alphanumeric attributes, search, print, etc.;
• adoption of open source technology;
• training with classroom theory lessons and practical exercises using real cases. The sessions were organised for specific roles: user, data administrator, system administrator.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

 The Direction Générale de la Sécurité Civile (DGSC) of the Comoros had the support of GeneGIS GI, whose years of experience enabled it to offer:

• extensive knowledge of the specific OpenStreetMap technologies and procedures;
• expertise in execution procedures for projects funded and managed by world organisations like the World Bank;
• international expertise in implementing open source geoportals for government agencies;
• many years’ experience in complex geospatial data collection and digitalisation campaigns.