Mirador

Climate change is impacting communities faster than governments can develop and adapt effective responses to. Furthermore, legacies of infrastructure disparity and disinvestment leave many communities at risk of not having effective support from centrally organized emergency services. By empowering hyperlocal community responses to emergency events, Mirador addresses disparity in critical infrastructure support, enhances response efforts and improves efficacy for emergency response.

Our open-source and free solution enables all citizens to contribute to and access hyperlocal critical information and resources in community-scale emergency situations. Community members commit needed resources in a decentralized and hyperlocal manner that complements and enhances centrally organized efforts to extend emergency service capabilities beyond what is supported by existing infrastructure. This enables the development of citizen-led emergency response processes in communities around the world where local governments and/or critical infrastructure may not support adequate centrally organized emergency services.

Global climate disaster costs have been $650B (Morgan Stanley) over the last three years and are projected to be $54 trillion in 2040. Approximately 3 million people are affected per year. Communities, regardless of state of economic development, are unprepared for appropriate disaster response due to gaps in infrastructure capacities, government policies, to individuals’ preparedness. (NCBI)

Typically during climate disasters, 10.3% of help comes from government authorities. The greatest number of lives are saved in the first 24 hours, often by neighbours and spontaneous volunteers. The increasing unpredictability, severity, and frequency of large-scale emergency events means that service gaps are emerging faster than local governments can adapt to. These gaps are exacerbated by legacies of infrastructure disparity between under-served / developed (socially and physically) communities and those of privilege.

In communities lacking formal local emergency response programs, citizen-driven provision of critical supplies / supports can provide immediate help to those in need. Even in communities with comprehensive emergency service capabilities, these efforts often take time to mobilize and community-supplied hyper-local supports can be activated to fill in immediate response gaps. However, spontaneous contributions of supplies and volunteer effort are often unstable and may become coordination burdens for emergency response efforts.

Underserved communities often lack both the luxury of response time (they are often first to be impacted) and infrastructure to support comprehensive centrally coordinated emergency responses due to social and physical disinvestment. Even in privileged communities with strong response practices and capabilities, individual preparedness for emergencies is relatively low due to apathy and lack of engagement.

Mirador provides critical crisis response capabilities to people in under-served communities that may lack sufficient centrally organized emergency service support. Proactively activating citizen-driven hyperlocal availability of life-saving supplies and supports empowers communities to be immediately responsive to their own members’ needs when critical emergency service infrastructure is either lacking or slower to coordinate. 

Privileged communities can also benefit from our solution as the immediate hyperlocal availability of supplies and supports can augment / complement even the best centrally coordinated comprehensive emergency response effort. Decentralized, citizen-supplied availability of supports (e.g, food / water / shelter / medical supplies) potentially lightens demands on already stressed infrastructure (roads, major medical facilities, etc.) and allows central authourities to focus on restoring critical civic systems.

Our solution empowers hyperlocal community emergency response by enabling contribution and coordination of activities, services and resources through real time activation and notification of self-organized mutual aid integrated with government emergency response (ER) efforts.

Hyper-local and community / citizen driven response capabilities can enhance the efforts of government ER efforts that are typically dependent on municipal infrastructure. Empowering community response capabilities will ensure a supporting, coordinated effort, especially in regions where hyperlocal infrastructure deficits hinder the ability of government to provide emergency support.

The core solution involves a curated geo-spatial registry of resources (supplies / services) that is developed in advance and is activated in the event of a community-scale emergency situation (screenshots below). The registry is curated by official ER authourities, allowing it to identify and prioritize resources that would complement and augment ER responses if made available in a decentralized and hyperlocal manner.

There are two primary user interfaces:

1. Populate and manage the registry

2. Activate the registry information as an asset layer through Google Maps and Apple Maps APIs.

A key driver of using Google and Apple Maps is the principle of providing the lowest barrier and most accessible means to obtaining emergency service information, instead of a closed app environment. 

The data input interface provides the ability for official ER authorities to manage (define / prioritize / curate / activate) registry items, facilitating alignment of community contributions with centrally coordinated activities. The ER authority can also contribute real-time hazard data to the registry that would inform Google and Apple Maps users of areas to avoid and update routing algorithms to help people travel safely. Community members use the downloadable app to indicate commitments of resources (e.g., supplies, shelter, services, etc.) that they will make available during emergency events. ER authorities may verify certain commitments where the quality of the resource may be critical to effective emergency response. Resources (verified and unverified) can be distinguished in Google / Apple maps to help users make informed decisions about what supports to pursue. 

Our solution is an open-source and free application in keeping with principles of removing barriers to contributing and accessing critical resources in times of need. ER needs to reflect hyperlocal contexts and the application needs to be adaptable to a community’s respective circumstances. Investments may include optional fees to help with technical setup of the registry and app interface, and potentially to support community engagement to increase citizen contributions and participation.

Our solution uses simple technologies to empower a wealth of citizen / community-driven resources that are critically needed in emergency situations. By enabling collective social and behavioural phenomena in real-time, our solution allows citizens to support their neighbours within their community, and communities to support neighbouring communities. Activating decentralized citizen-driven resiliency behaviours and capabilities in ways that augment and complement central emergency services has more impact than technology and process / practice alone.

The 2013 floods in Calgary, Alberta, surfaced unexpected citizen contributions of effort and supplies that were not effectively integrated into centrally organized emergency services despite the availability of cutting edge technologies and best-practices. Mirador fills in service gaps where critical infrastructure may be lacking and enhances the immediacy, reach, and efficacy of comprehensive emergency service efforts.

The core of Mirador is an integration of a relatively simple database, a customizable interface for web / mobile, and APIs to integrate commonly used mapping systems (e.g., ESRI / ArcGIS, Google / Apple Maps, etc.). The differentiator is the design of effective community engagement to drive contribution commitments and working with central emergency response authorities to ensure that the registry and interfaces reflect local community contexts. The technology provides:

• A basic list of essential items populated based on the local governments inputs
• Options for volunteers to display what they can offer (e.g., food, shelter, first-aid)

To provide users with freely accessible real-time crisis response information, the registry data (integrated with ArcGIS) can be activated as an asset layer in Google / Apple Maps, including:

• Hazardous zones / gaps to prioritize areas lacking infrastructure and needing the most help
• Centrally coordinated / critical infrastructure supported supply
• Decentralized community / citizen-driven supply

Future iterations will include the enhancement of AI and machine learning capabilities to predict which resources may be prioritized in different situations / emergencies. Over time, the information gathered can be used to train algorithms to differentiate between natural disasters, and suggest ‘most effective’ courses of action depending on the location and supplies available. With the participation of sufficient number of communities, big-data analytics can be applied to the combined data in the collective registries to better understand the dynamics of community-driven responses to emergencies and these insights may be shared with communities to enhance their emergency response efforts.

Mirador fills in service gaps where critical infrastructure may be lacking and enhances the immediacy, reach, and efficacy of comprehensive emergency service (ES) efforts. The data input interface provides the ability for official ES authorities to proactively manage (define / prioritize / curate / activate) registry items, facilitating alignment of community contributions with centrally coordinated activities. The ES authority can also contribute real-time hazard data to the registry that would inform Google and Apple Maps users of areas to avoid and update routing algorithms to help people travel safely.

Community members use the downloadable app to indicate commitments of resources (e.g., supplies, shelter, services, etc.) that they will make available during emergency events. ER authorities may verify certain commitments where the quality of the resource may be critical to effective emergency response. Resources (verified and unverified) can be distinguished in Google / Apple maps to help users make informed decisions about what supports to pursue.

The solution is in the prototype phase, it is currently built on concepts developed through 2010 Russian forest fires and the Calgary, Alberta floods (#yychelps) and other apps (Ushahidi).

The number of people being served are:

• Current: ~1.3 million people (population of Calgary), 

• 1 Year:  ~4 million (population of Alberta),

• 2.5 Years: Approximately ~6.6 million people. Major disaster prone cities in US, Houston (2.4 million), Dallas (1.3 million), Kansas City (2.9 million)

• 5 years: Begin piloting with youth in flood prone areas in Bangladesh (Sylhet, 537K, Chittagong, 3 million)

For the first year, our aim to develop a prototype of the API and run tests within Calgary, Canada. We will continue work with our partner in the City of Calgary's Living Labs team to run exercises to iteratively develop Mirador's functionality.

We aim to work with the City of Calgary and the Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) to develop a larger-scale Market-Led Proposal (potentially funded by the City of Calgary) within the next year for a community-scale pilot-test. In parallel with the City of Calgary Market-Led Proposal, we plan to partner with the Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) to run pilot-tests of Mirador in smaller Alberta communities that do not have independent comprehensive emergency service capabilities.

The simplicity and universality of the application's back-end interface / technology (basic registry database / Google & Apple Maps APIs) should allow Mirador's core functionality to be easily adapted to any North American / English-language community. Citizen and partner engagement in each respective community may be done by Mirador as a service or by the respective government / central authourity of a given jurisdiction.

After testing Mirador's application in multiple Alberta jurisdictions (anticipated in two years), we will seek to run proof-of-concepts in other major cities in Canada the United States (Vancouver / earthquake, Winnipeg and Ottawa / flood, Saskatoon / tornado, Houston / hurricane). We plan to work with select North American jurisdictions for 2 to 3 years before developing applicability for Bangladesh and SE Asian communities within 5 years.

The main factor limiting our success is partnership agreements needed . The coordination municipal governments, provincial government, federal government, will require  consultation and planning. 

A secondary barrier is the testing of citizen engagement and uptake of the app.

Conversations attached to our initial strategy and feasibility study have begun with each of these parties. We have established relationships with the City of Calgary and a commitment to work collaboratively to develop the core functionality of Mirador. This relationship with the City of Calgary will provide us with credibility and contacts to engage other municipal governments and emergency service authorities for future pilot tests and partnerships.

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Two members

Our team of consultants are community-minded, strategy focused and have a background in behavioural design and urban planning. We've lived through climate disasters in both developed and developing worlds, providing us with a unique understanding of societal needs.

As we are based in Calgary, Canada, the team is working with the City of Calgary’s Living Labs team to test our proof-of-concept and adjust the algorithm based on the needs of the city. During the pilot stage, the City of Calgary and the Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) is interested in developing a market-led proposal to test the functionality of the app at a limited scale. In order to reach communities in remote Alberta, we will engage the Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) to develop an understanding of the services required in smaller communities which lack access to local emergency services. The team is currently identifying Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) within the university to improve Mirador's algorithm.

Our solution is an open-source and free application in keeping with principles of removing barriers to contributing and accessing critical resources in times of need. ER needs to reflect hyperlocal contexts and the application needs to be adaptable to a community’s respective circumstances.

Current funding is needed for the one-time development of the core technology platform that provides the functionality of a registry integrated with a customizable user-interface that allows emergency service authorities to proactively manage citizen-contributed commitments of supplies and supports. Once developed, this technology application will be provided for free to communities and governments. There is no expectation of revenue generation from users accessing information through Google / Apple Maps in times of crisis.

On-going activities for the non-profit organization may be supporting governments / emergency service authorities in customizing the technology for their respective needs and community engagement activities to drive commitments / validation of citizen contributions. The gradual collection and accumulation of data from various customer jurisdictions will be analyzed (supported either by service fees and/or through academic partnerships) and be made available for use by other communities to develop and inform their emergency service / response capabilities. Further funding (whether enabled by service revenue or additional grants / donations) will be used to develop AI capabilities for monitoring social media, real-time matching of requests / supplies, and predicting crisis-specific demands of different supplies / supports.

We are working to raise funds through grants and donations to support the development of the technology platform that provides the core functionality of managing and coordinating citizen-driven contributions of supplies / supports and activating the information through Google / Apple Maps. Future functionality (to be funded by service fees, academic partnerships, and/or by additional grants / donations) may include analysis of collective data from participating jurisdictions and AI capabilities.

As a non-profit, Mirador may generate on-going revenues from governments and emergency-service authorities from optional service fees related to technical setup of the registry and app interface, and potentially to support community engagement to increase and validate citizen contributions and participation. Governments and emergency-service authorities may seek to recover some costs through the selling of in-app advertising that may further enhance citizen / community engagement and/or community-scale crisis preparedness (e.g., community association events and initiatives, suppliers of emergency response supplies, emergency service partners, etc.).

We are applying to Solve to learn from and contribute to the network of experts at MIT. We will need to start understanding how to progress from developing a business strategy to engage in partnership discussions about major infrastructure implementation. Solve offers a community of mentors from all steps and stages of start-up solution development. Ultimately, we feel that we offer unique strategic outlook and can provide energy beyond our specific application in the Calgary region.

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We will partner with local governments and emergency service authorities (e.g., CEMA, AEMA) to develop, test, and implement Mirador in various jurisdictions. Access to staff and systems from early-stage partners will be needed to inform the collaborative development of technology functionality and support testing at scale. We will work with local community associations, faith-based organizations, ethno-cultural groups and other community influencers to develop a citizen network for feedback and commitments of contributions.

As we expand beyond Alberta and start international trials, we will work with the Red Cross and engage FEMA to ensure proper integration and alignment of APIs / systems and processes. We will similarly engage the UN and various levels of Bangladeshi governments when developing functionality for those and other international jurisdictions.

As market traction of Mirador increases and a sufficient base of data is collected, we will work with academia to develop analytical insights that can be shared with governments and emergency service authorities to enhance their response preparedness and capabilities. We will also partner with academia to develop AI capabilities to automate the monitoring and triaging of social media channels, real-time matching of requests and supplies, and prioritizing of crisis-specific needs.

To provide the user with the most updated information regarding the disaster aftermath, AI algorithms can provide capabilities to automate:

• The identification of hazardous zones / gaps and rerouting of support to prioritize areas lacking infrastructure and needing the most help

• Real-time matching and triaging of support requests with hyperlocal supply
  

• Predict which resources may be prioritized in different situations / emergencies

Over time, the information gathered can be used to train the algorithm to differentiate between natural disasters, and suggest ‘most effective’ courses of action depending on the location and supplies available. With the participation of sufficient number of communities, the combined data in the collective registries may be analyzed using big-data capabilities to better understand the dynamics of community-driven responses to emergencies and these insights may be shared with communities to also enhance their emergency response efforts.Future iterations may include the enhancement of AI and machine learning capabilities to engage local suppliers and retailers to proactively adjust supply-chain and inventory management of certain perishable supplies based on demand predictions.

Mirador helps provide a foundation for emergency service quality in under-served and under-represented communities by helping ensure the hyperlocal availability of critical supplies / supports in times of crisis even when critical infrastructure may be lacking. Additional funds would support intensive partner engagement to develop more extensive and comprehensive community networks in under-served communities to enhance their crisis resiliency beyond what is provided by government and emergency-service authority capabilities.

Mirador can also be used to identify areas to target for prioritized service delivery and/or future infrastructure investment. The geo-spatial information about support capacities and coverage areas provided by existing critical infrastructure and citizen contributions can be overlapped and compared to identify under-served areas and service gaps that can be addressed proactively.

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Our focus is not-for-profit, as such we will not be applying for this award.

Harnessing citizens' collective social and behavioral resources allows
communities to enhance their crisis resiliency beyond what is provided by government and emergency-service authority capabilities. Mirador empowers communities to enhance the timeliness, reach, and efficacy of emergency service efforts not otherwise achievable by policy, process, and/or technology alone.

The funding from the innovation will provide us with the funds required to test the prototype in the community. We need to test:

- The app user interface

- The registry

- AI capabilities to enhance responsiveness and effectiveness

The brand will also help us engage provincial governments, local emergency response bodies and communities in stakeholder engagement sessions required to run proof-of-concepts. It will also help us engage relevant stakeholders in the United States and Bangladesh.

Our solution does not address gun safety and as such we will not be applying for this.