Win One of Two $10k Prizes in the Esri Global Disaster Resistance App Challenge

Esri is hosting the Global Disaster Resistance App Challenge, which was created to show how mobile technology can impact the design of programs for the sustainable use of energy and natural resources as well as mitigate the impact of natural disasters.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) launched the Making Cities Resilient Campaign to improve land use and urban planning for 1,800 participating cities worldwide. Esri is collaborating with UNISDR on the initiative and giving these cities access to its desktop and developer technology.

The challenge is to put create designs and plans into action by building an app with the Esri ArcGIS Platform. Esri will present one $10,000 award for the best professional/scientific app and one $10,000 award for the best consumer/public-facing app. 

Developers are encouraged to design an app around one or more of the areas on the United Nations Essentials for Making Cities Resilient. Developers can explore all angles to reducing urban risks. Build an app that is useful to specific community members or everyday citizens. Or design an app for researchers, scientists, and other professionals who will use it to influence policy or make planning decisions.

Apps will be evaluated on these criteria:

- Originality of the idea

- Technical Challenge of the Implementation

-  Experience/User Interface

- Potential for Real-World Application

- Articulation of What Application Does

- Use the ArcGIS Platform to understand patterns of hazards, impacts, vulnerability and exposure – particularly for frequent events, which may not grab global attention but have localized impacts.

- Present seasonal or long-term climate information and events such as El Nino Information.

- Use publicly available information, such as census data or information on housing stock, to better understand exposure, vulnerability.

- Enable communities to identify, record, and report hazard impacts or potential hazards.

- Help connect the community through networking, project identification, initiative meetings, or collaboration.

- Capture aggregate social media (Twitter feeds, Facebook etc.) and build the “buzz” about resilience, adaptation, and disaster risk reduction.

- Organize a marketplace for risk reduction services to enable cities and communities to connect to technical service providers in private sector.

Winners will be announced September 15, 2014. More information is available on the Esri website.