The Sahana Software Foundation develops open-source software aimed at improving disaster response coordination and saving lives through efficient information management solutions. It was first deployed in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and has since been utilized in various major disaster deployments worldwide, enhancing capabilities such as missing persons tracking, aid management, and situational awareness. The foundation fosters a global community of contributors, focusing on collaboration and innovation in the humanitarian sector.

1. Making Chaos Manageable
“No innovation matters more
than that which saves lives”
Avelino J. Cruz, Jr., Secretary of National Defense of the Philippines
on the use of Sahana following disastrous mudslides in 2005
Mark Prutsalis
President & CEO, Sahana Software Foundation
2011 Open World Forum
23 September 2011

2. Sahana Software Foundation
The Sahana Software Foundation is dedicated to the
mission of saving lives by providing information
management solutions that enable organizations and
communities to better prepare for and respond to disasters.
We develop free and open source software and provide
services that help solve concrete problems and bring
efficiencies to disaster response coordination between
governments, aid organizations, civil society and the victims
themselves.
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3. Sahana Software
Sahana free and open source software helps bring
efficiencies to disaster response coordination:
Reuniting separated families through registering missing and found
persons
Tracking and managing requests for help from individuals and
organizations
Tracking organizations and programs responding to the disaster,
including the coverage and balance in the distribution of aid,
providing transparency
Enabling relevant sharing of information across organizations,
connecting donors, volunteers, NGOs, and government
organizations, enabling them to operate as one
Primary focus is always to help victims
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4. The Historic Trigger: 2004
Indian Ocean
Earthquake & Tsunami
At least 226,000 dead
Up to 5 million people
lost their homes, or
access to food and
water
1 million people left
without a means to
make a living
At least $7.5 billion in
the cost of damages
“Facts and Figures: Asian Tsunami Disaster”
New Scientist, 20 January 2005
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5. First deployed for
Sri Lanka tsunami response
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6. Core Capabilities
Organization & Volunteer
Registry
Understanding 4W: “Who What
Where When”: Maintains data
(contacts, services) of groups,
organizations, staff, and
volunteers responding to the
disaster
Missing Persons /
Disaster Victims Registry
Helps track and find missing
and found, deceased, injured
and displaced people and
families
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7. Core Capabilities
Request and Donations
Management
Manages all requests,
assessments and incident
reports and helps match
commitments for support,
donations, aid and supplies
through to fulfillment
Geospatial Analysis
Provides situational awareness
of all important locations to the
disaster response, such as
shelters, hospitals,
warehouses, incident reports,
and assessments.
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8. Functionality Overview
Situation Awareness Person Management
Geospatial Database Person Registry
Situation Mapping Victim Tracking & Tracing
Charts & Reporting Disaster Victim Identification
Assessment Collection Missing Persons Registry
Situation & Incident Reporting
Biosurveillance Aid Management
Organization Registry
Resource Management Shelter Registry
Volunteer and Staff Management Request Management
Scenario Planning
Project Tracking and Management Communications & Alerting
Logistics Management E-mail & SMS
Inventory Management Mobile Apps (iPhone & Android)
Hospital Management Alerting System (CAP)
Food Aid Request Management Alert Aggregation
Donations Management
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9. Sahana Software Projects
Eden – Emergency Agasti
Development Environment Vesuvius – Developed by US
flexible rapid application National Library of Medicine –
development platform with a provides Lost Person Finder &
rich feature set Hospital Triage Management
capabilities include: logistics, Mayon – Developed by City
staffing and volunteers, University of New York or NYC
organizations, hospitals, OEM – provides Emergency
shelters, assessments, incident Resource Management and
reports, disaster victim Scenario Planning for large
identification, donations municipalities
management, mapping, Standards & Interoperability
messaging, person finder.
designed for humanitarian Promotes adoption of open
organizations and agencies data standards and
engaged in disaster relief. interoperability between
humanitarian FOSS projects.
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10. Technology and Features
Environments
Linux, Windows, OSX
Portable App, VM
Translation & Localization
Pootle, Character Sets
Right-to-left scripting
Open Data Standards
KML, WMS, GeoRSS, WPS
EDXL, CAP, JSON, XML
Mobile Accessibility
J2ME, HTML 5, Xforms
JavaRosa, OCR, NetBooks
XO Laptops
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11. Major Disaster Deployments
Hurricane Irene in New York – 2011
Tornado in Joplin, Missouri - 2011
Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan – 2011
Christchurch Earthquake in New Zealand - 2011
Flooding in Colombia – 2011
Flooding in Venezuela – 2010
Flooding in Pakistan – 2010
Hurricane in Veracruz, Mexico – 2010
Earthquake in Chile – 2010
Earthquake in Haiti – 2010
Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar – 2008
Chengdu-Sitzuan Province Earthquake, China – 2008
Bihar Floods, India – 2008
Ica Earthquake, Peru – 2007
Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh – 2007
Yogjakarta Earthquake, Indonesia – 2006
Landslides in the Philippines– 2005
Kashmir Earthquake in Pakistan – 2005
Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami in Sri Lanka – 2004
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12. Pre-Disaster Deployments
Bombeiros in Portugal - 2011
IFRC Asia Pacific Disaster Management Unit – 2010
Philippines Red Cross in the Philippines – 2010
SahanaTaiwan, Academia Sinica, in Taiwan – 2010
Asia Disaster Preparedness Center, Bangkok, Thailand – 2010
National Disaster Relief Services Center, Sri Lanka – 2010
National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) in
Indonesia – 2009
National Disaster Coordinating Council in the Philippines – 2009
US National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland - 2009
LirneAsia, Bio-Surveillance, Sri Lanka and India - 2008
Sarvodaya (NGO), Sri Lanka – 2008
Office of Emergency Management in New York City – 2007
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13. City of New York Office of
Emergency Management
Shelter Management System
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14. City of New York
Shelter Management
Sahana Mayon – Scenario Management Defines:
Scenarios
Resource Types
Facility Groups
Staff Requirements
Staff Pools and Shifts
Sahana Vesuvius
Family and Individual Registration at Shelters
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15. US National Library of Medicine
People Locator Project
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16. Sahana Vesuvius Capabilities
Event Manager
Report a Person (Web Form)
Full Person Record & Edits
TriagePic
Search for a Person
Report a Person by E-mail
ReUnite iPhone App
PFIF Interoperability with Google Person Finder
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17. TriagePic
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18. Searching for a Person
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19. ReUnite
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20. 2011 Sendai (Japan)
Earthquake & Tsunami
Sahana Japan Team:
Hyogontech
IBM Japan
SSF
http://sahana.jp
Sahana Eden
>1200 shelters
Organizations
Soup Kitchens
Volunteer Activities
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21. http://Sahana.Jp/Eden
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22. Sahana.Jp Mapping Shelters,
Organization, Soup Kitchens...
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23. Awards
Gartner Inc. Cool Vendor in Risk Management and Compliance –
2010
Best Practices Award from Public Private Businesses, Inc. –
2010
Sourceforge Community Choice Awards Best Project for
Government Finalist – 2009
Free Software Foundation Award for Social Benefit – 2006
Sand Hill Group Good Samaritan Award – 2006
Sourceforge Project of the Month – June 2006
User Award from Redhat Summit – 2005
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24. Case Studies
UN Foundation: Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in
Humanitarian Emergencies, 2011
ICT for Disaster Risk Reduction 2, Asian Pacific Training Centre for Information
and Communications Technology for Development, 2010
Gartner Inc.: Sahana: Humanitarian Disaster Management and Collaboration
System, June 16, 2010.
ISCRAM: The Sahana Software Foundation response to the 2010 Haiti
Earthquake - 2010
UNESCAP Technical Paper: A Case Study of the Sahana Disaster Management
System of Sri Lanka – 2009
Communications of the ACM (CACM): Revitalizing Computing Education Through
Free and Open Source Software for Humanity – 2009
Disaster Resource Guide Quarterly: New Open Source Software Could Greatly
Improve Federal and State Disaster Relief Operations – 2008
Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme ePrimer: ICT for Disaster
Management – 2007
CACM: Open Source Software for Disaster Management - 2007
UNDP IOSN Case Study on Sahana – 2006
BBC Documentary, The Codebreakers – 2006
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25. The Sahana Community
A unique global voluntary
team of developers and
experts:
Emergency Managers
Relief Workers
Experienced FOSS
Developers
ICT Specialists
Researchers Global collaboration for the
Humanitarian Activists global public good
Medical and Public Health
Professionals
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26. SSF Community Development
Programs
Our Vision is to build and sustain a global open and
collaborative community of contributors to
information and communications technologies for
disaster management. To this end, we support:
Google Summer of Code / Google Code-In
RHoK / GWOB Hackathons
Grace Hopper Celebration Codeathon for Humanity
HFOSS Project & ISCRAM Partnership
SahanaCamps
GET INVOLVED TODAY!
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27. Sahana Partners & Stakeholders
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28. Free and Open Source Software Projects
Freedom to use, analyze, modify and re-distribute
Available for everybody at no cost
Open for research and development
Collaboratively developed by a Global community
Sahana Software Foundation
http://SahanaFoundation.org
Info@SahanaFoundation.org
@SahanaFOSS #Sahana
http://www.slideshare.net/SahanaFOSS
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