Lightning Talk IndiaFOSS 2025

IDS-DRR: An Open Data and AI Platform for Disaster Management

IDS-DRR: An Open Data and AI Platform for Disaster Management

Session Description

In India, floods impact over 7.5 million hectares of land annually, causing damages estimated at over Rs. 1900 Crore INR to crops, housing, and public infrastructure. The Intelligent Data Solution for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDS-DRR) is an open-source AI-based analytics platform and open data ecosystem developed by CivicDataLab and the Open Contracting Partnership to address this growing crisis. By integrating diverse datasets from satellite imagery and government spending to demographic vulnerability and historical damages, IDS-DRR generates localized, actionable insights to help governments and communities better prepare for and respond to flood events. It is enabling decision-makers to allocate resources more equitably and efficiently, particularly in high-risk regions.

The next phase of the project aims at integrating more citizen participation in the disaster governance process, by disseminating insights and data, and enabling decentralized reporting on post-disaster needs. We additionally invite contributions to fork and build upon IDS-DRR model for diverse disaster contexts. The goal is to amplify citizen agency and to build richer, more locally relevant datasets for disaster risk reduction data systems.

This talk will share how open data and open-source technologies are being used to reimagine public infrastructure for climate resilience.