Sahana: Overview of a Disaster Management System Mifan Careem * , Chamindra De Silva * , Ravindra De Silva * , and Louiqa Raschid † , Sanjiva Weerawarana * * Lanka Software Foundation,Sri Lanka mifan | chamindra | ravindra | sanjiva @opensource.lk † University of Maryland louiqa@umiacs.umd.edu Abstract— Large scale disasters bring together a diversity of organizations and produce massive amounts of heterogeneous data that must be managed by these organizations. The lack of effective ICT solutions can lead to a lack of coordination and chaos among these organizations, as they track victims’ needs and respond to the disaster. The result can be delayed or ineffective response, the potential wastage of pledged support, imbalances in aid distribution, and a lack of transparency. ICT solutions to manage disasters can potentially improve efficiency and effectiveness. Sahana is a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) application that aims to be a comprehensive solution for information management in relief operations, recovery and rehabilitation. This paper addresses the alignment between FOSS development and humanitarian applications. it then describes the anatomy of the Sahana system. We follow up with a case study of Sahana deployment and lessons learned. Keywords—FOSS, humanitarian applications, disaster man- agement systems, Tsunami I. I NTRODUCTION Recent disasters such as the 2003 SARS outbreak, the 2004 Asian tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir/Pakistan earthquake and 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita clearly identified the shortcomings of ICT solutions for disaster rescue and recovery. Large-scale disasters are typically accompanied by the need to effectively manage massive amounts of data. This includes data about victims and about relief personnel; data about dam- ages to buildings, infrastructure and belongings; weather data; geographical data about roads and other landmarks; logistics data; communication and message data; financial data needed to manage the collection and distribution of donations; data in blogs; etc. Major disasters also involve multiple autonomous organizations (governmental, NGOs, INGOs, individuals, com- munities, and industry). This leads to a diversity of client needs that must be coordinated. Despite the tremendous value of disaster management sys- tems, there are only very few systems that exist today and none are widely deployed. The most widely used system appears to be non-Web based and uses proprietary non standard database technology. While there are various specialized components that exist, there does not exist a single cohesive system that organizations such as the United Nations Disaster Assistance and Coordination (UNDAC) can routinely deploy. There are disaster information systems that focus on spe- cialized application or data requirements including imagery and GIS data[1] [2] [3], early warning models using sensor data [4], mobile ad hoc networks and messaging, etc [5]. However, there is no current project that provides information system or data management support for the basic functionality of disaster management such as registering organizations, locating missing persons and requesting assistance. Effective ICT solutions can support the coordination of AID groups and help them keep track of victims’ needs while responding to the disaster. As a result, there is potentially less wastage of pledged support or imbalances in aid distribution. In particular, it is hoped that disaster information management systems can support efficiencies and effectiveness in coping with the information management and coordination needs during a disaster. Sahana is a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) application that aims to provide a comprehensive solu- tion for information management in relief operations, recovery and rehabilitation. In this paper, we first address FOSS development strategies and humanitarian applications and make the case that there is a natural fit between the two. We then describe the anatomy, architecture and platform for the Sahana FOSS project. We then provide a case study of a Sahana deployment and use this case study to identify lessons learned for the future. II. FOSS AND HUMANITARIAN APPLICATIONS Free and Open Source software (FOSS) constitutes a sig- nificant portion of the software market today. The application of FOSS has enabled various communities to exploit infor- mation technology in diverse operations and to reach a wider population. Innovation driven FOSS is free of charge. More important, it often addresses areas that may not be sought after by a profit seeking company. This is the case with disaster management; despite the tremendous value software can bring, there are very few systems that exist today and none of them are widely deployed. The Sahana project was born as a FOSS application to address disaster management, collaboration and coordination in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. The Sahana project almost immediately gained widespread attention from developers and humanitarian consultants worldwide. A major reason for Sahana’s success is that the FOSS ethos and humanitarian requirements bond well together. A. FOSS alignment for humanitarian-ICT applications In general, there are numerous reasons why FOSS software finds a natural fit for information and communication technol- ogy applications in the humanitarian domain. We expand on a few reasons as follows: 1–4244–0555–6/06/$20.00 c  2006 IEEE ICIA 2006