Open-Source Early Warning Mobile Application

Develop an open-source mobile application that provides real-time, location-based early warning alerts for extreme weather events. The application should conform to Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) standards, integrate trusted data sources, and include multilingual support for global usability.

Early warnings for extreme weather events are critical to reducing loss of life and property damage. However, many existing systems either lack local context or fail to deliver timely alerts. By integrating multiple official data feeds (e.g., from NOAA, WMO) and local crowd-sourced reports, this project aims to create a reliable and widely accessible early warning app. The solution will follow CAP standards to ensure consistency and compatibility with global alerting systems, and it will include modular, open-source components to facilitate adaptation in diverse regions.

This initiative will produce a mobile app that provides real-time, geolocated alerts based on standardized alerting protocols and verified data sources. The open-source nature of the project will enable adaptation for various languages, regions, and hazard types. Accompanying documentation and deployment instructions will make it easy for local governments and NGOs to adopt the system, improving emergency preparedness worldwide.

Target Outcomes:

• A fully functional mobile app that meets CAP standards.
• Integration with multiple trusted data sources and multilingual support.
• Comprehensive documentation and open-source codebase for global replication.

10 Steps

• Establish a backend architecture that ingests and processes alerts from multiple official data providers (e.g., NOAA, WMO), ensuring compliance with the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)
• Develop a data transformation layer that converts raw alert data into a unified format, applying message validation against CAP schemas to ensure accuracy and standardization
• Implement machine learning models for risk prioritization, using supervised classification algorithms to rank alerts based on severity, location, and potential impact
• Design a user authentication and data access control system, adhering to secure coding standards and best practices for mobile application security
• Build a mobile-friendly user interface (UI) that dynamically updates alerts on a map view, provides detailed risk summaries, and supports multilingual content
• Integrate push notification services to deliver timely alerts directly to users’ devices, using low-latency messaging protocols (e.g., Firebase Cloud Messaging)
• Implement geofencing functionality so that users receive localized alerts only relevant to their current or saved locations
• Conduct rigorous user acceptance testing (UAT) in multiple regions to ensure the app is intuitive, responsive, and reliable under various network conditions
• Optimize app performance and data handling for low-bandwidth environments, employing caching strategies and efficient data serialization formats (e.g., Protobuf)
• Publish the full codebase, deployment scripts, API reference documentation, and an end-user guide to facilitate adoption, customization, and integration into local and national early warning systems