On the eve of the north-east monsoon in Chennai, a new initiative for people to report on flooding and serious effect of the rains in the local area is being publicised by a voluntary body which works on issues that affect consumers.
MIT Urban Risk Lab, Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG) which is based in Alwarpet, and 100 Resilient Cities Initiative are collaborating to deploy Riskmap.in – a free and open, resident-led flood reporting platform.
This project is supported by TATA Center of Technology and Design at MIT.
Developed by the Urban Risk Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, RiskMap.in harnesses the power of citizen reporting and social media to map time-critical information without needing to install any new apps or training, says a note from the collaborators.
This platform helps connect residents – who often have the best-localized information during flooding – with each other and the government.
Through the live map, residents and government officials, are also able to inform each other about dynamically evolving situations in the city and help each other navigate to safety.
