DisasterWatch Early Warning System

This was our submission for a competition at MUST to create an Early Warning System for disasters to provide alerts and helpful resources to Malawians in times of need. This was in the wake of 2023's Cyclone Freddy, which caused a lot of destruction and loss of life in the southern region of Malawi.

Our team ended up coming in second place, close behind the Optimum Systems team, but our respective apps both had such unique features that their winning app ended up being required to incorporate some of the features from our own app

Mobile App

The public-facing part of the system was a mobile app which would deliver alerts and notifications to users located in areas which could be affected by upcoming disasters. Additionally, the mobile app also provided the following features:

• Maps of evacuation shelters, their contact details, and directions
• Crowd-sourced damage reporting
• Weather forecasts
• Ability to customize additional monitored locations for which you could receive disaster alerts
• Real-time disaster map
• Contacts of emergency services and law enforcement
• Ability to customize the app between three local languages (English, Chichewa, Chitumbuka)

Administration Interface

The Administration Interface was what would be used by the managers of the system to push alerts to the public, edit and manage evacuation shelters, review and approve crowd-sourced damage reports to show in the app, and receive user messages