AI, Data and Community Insight Power a New Approach to Disaster Risk in Southeast Asia
-- More than two decades ago, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami changed coastlines and communities across Southeast Asia. From Indonesia and Sri Lanka to Thailand and India, the disaster exposed how vulnerable densely populated coastal regions were to sudden and large-scale shocks. In the years that followed, recovery efforts went beyond rebuilding homes and infrastructure. They also focused on learning how communities could better prepare for future disasters.
One such effort was Project SELAMAT by Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS), a regional initiative that emerged from the tsunami’s aftermath to strengthen community-level disaster preparedness across affected countries. The project brought together civil society groups, researchers, and local institutions to document lessons from the disaster and develop tools that could help communities understand and reduce risk. Through training resources such as the Selamat Toolbox and collaborative learning initiatives, the programme emphasised a simple but powerful idea: disaster resilience begins with informed and prepared communities.
At SEEDS, teams use AI models to map vulnerability and on ground teams are mobilised to alert communities to reduce impacts from heatwaves, cyclones and floods.
Today, however, the scale and complexity of disaster risk are evolving rapidly. Climate change, urban expansion, and environmental degradation are creating new patterns of vulnerability across South and Southeast Asia. Floods, cyclones, heatwaves, and air pollution are increasingly becoming part of everyday risk landscapes. While advances in disaster risk reduction have helped reduce loss of life in many regions, the global economic cost of disasters continues to rise, according to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
This changing risk environment is prompting a new phase in disaster management, where data and technology are playing a growing role alongside community knowledge. Organisations such as SEEDS are exploring how artificial intelligence can help shift disaster management from reactive response to anticipatory action.
“Disaster risk today is dynamic, layered, and deeply local. The challenge is not only responding faster, but understanding risk early enough to act meaningfully,” said Dr. Manu Gupta, co-founder of SEEDS. “Advances in AI allow us to move from generalised assessments to specific insights at the level of communities, households, and critical assets.”
Across parts of South and Southeast Asia, AI-enabled models are beginning to combine weather forecasts with data on settlement patterns, housing conditions, and socio-economic vulnerability. Instead of predicting only where a cyclone may make landfall or where flooding may occur, these systems can identify which neighbourhoods, buildings, and communities are most exposed.
For example, in cyclone-prone coastal districts such as Puri in eastern India, models developed after events like Cyclone Fani are helping combine forecast data with housing and settlement information to identify structures most at risk. This enables early actions such as securing homes, protecting water sources, and mobilising preparedness measures before a disaster strikes.
Technology is also transforming what happens after disasters occur. Traditionally, damage assessments can take weeks to compile, delaying relief and recovery. AI-supported analysis using satellite imagery, drone data, and ground-level information can now estimate damage and needs far more quickly, enabling faster decision-making and mechanisms such as parametric insurance or rapid relief allocation.
Beyond sudden disasters, artificial intelligence is also helping address slower and less visible risks. In dense urban regions across northern India, AI models are combining temperature, humidity, housing conditions, and occupational exposure to identify neighbourhoods most vulnerable to extreme heat and air pollution. In the Himalayan region, similar approaches are being used to analyse ecological and settlement data to better understand household-level exposure to risks such as flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods.
Yet experts caution that technology alone cannot build resilience. The lessons from programmes such as SELAMAT remain relevant today: communities must be able to understand, trust, and use the tools that support disaster preparedness. Local knowledge, lived experience, and community networks remain essential components of effective risk reduction.
If a disaster on the scale of the 2004 tsunami were to occur today, the response landscape would likely look very different. Early warning systems would draw on multiple data streams, damage assessments could be generated in near real time, and risk mapping could guide targeted preparedness measures long before impact. But the fundamental principle would remain unchanged: resilience grows strongest where technology and communities work together.
As Southeast Asia continues to face intensifying climate risks, the challenge ahead is not only to respond better to disasters, but to anticipate them more intelligently. By combining lessons from past disasters with emerging tools such as artificial intelligence, the region is gradually shaping a more proactive approach to disaster resilience - one that protects lives, livelihoods, and the future of vulnerable communities.
About SEEDS
SEEDS (Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society) is a leading non-profit organization with over three decades of experience in building resilience among communities vulnerable to disasters and the impacts of climate change. Combining innovative technologies with traditional wisdom, SEEDS designs and implements solutions that strengthen disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. With a special focus on marginalized groups, the organization works closely with local governments and community networks to equip people with the knowledge and resources needed to face future risks with confidence.
Contact Info:
Name: Sushmita Malaviya
Email: Send Email
Organization: Sushmita Malaviya
Phone: +91 9717243131
Website: https://seedsindia.org/
Release ID: 89187369
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