Citizen Observers in eastern DRC and southwestern Uganda

Since 2019, two citizen observers (CO) networks, located in the Kivu region (eastern DRC) and southwestern Uganda, are surveying natural hazards and associated disasters, in the framework of the HARISSA project (2019-2023). Using smartphones or tablets, they collect information on earthquake, flood, hailstorm, landslide, lightning, and windstorm. The collected data (description, pictures, location of hazards and potential damages) are then transmitted to an online platform and analysed by CO supervisors who produce regular reports presenting the natural hazards and associated disasters situation in their regions. Beyond observing, CO are key actors in their local communities; they are in direct contact with the environment and play a role in awareness raising at the interface between communities and scientists.

Southwestern Uganda Observers: The network consists of 25 members of local communities mostly involved in farming activities.

Kivu Citizen Observers: The network consists of 22 representatives of the North and South Kivu Civil Protection, supervised by Ildephonse Nguomoja and Jean Marie Bwishe, two colleagues of the Civil Protection (respectively North and South Kivu), and coordinated by Théo Mana from the Centre de Recherche en Sciences Naturelles de Lwiro. The team is presented below. The data on natural hazards and associated disasters collected by this group are accessible in the Web-GIS available at this link.