Map Pinpoints Communities Most in Need of Disaster Relief

Global warming has all but guaranteed that storm seasons will continue to intensify, in traditional hurricane hot spots and further afield, meaning more people are likely to be affected by destroyed homes and communities and in need of financial support. But there is never enough support to go around, so charities are always looking to donate as efficiently as possible. A partnership between GiveDirectly and Google.org aims to smooth the process of delivering funds to the people who require them most urgently.

The charity, the largest in the world that assists via direct cash transfers only, and the tech giant have launched Delphi, an online tool that allows aid organizations to pinpoint the specific locations, down to granular zip-code level, most in need of assistance. The data-driven effort creates scores based on the overlap between two metrics—poverty level and destruction of property—then ranks and shows those neighborhoods visually in Google Maps.

It could prove crucial for nonprofits such as GiveDirectly, which has to make hard decisions about where their cash would go the farthest. Landing on a better method became a priority after many organizations, including GiveDirectly, largely ignored the hard-hit community of Port Arthur after 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, in favor of concentrating on Houston. It later emerged that three out of five most impacted people were residents of Port Arthur (three years later many residents are still homeless and awaiting aid).

Delphi, which is now live, will not be limited to GiveDirectly. It has the framework to be used not only for hurricanes but also for other disasters, such as wildfires. Nawar adds that it’ll also save aid organizations time, and field costs by about 25%, by cutting back on the laborious fieldwork.