Bali, Indonesia’s “Island of the Gods,” is celebrated for its natural beauty and spiritual heritage, yet faces a complex array of disaster risks shaped by tectonic activity, climate variability, and human development. Located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the island is prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, landslides, and tsunamis. Mount Agung, a sacred stratovolcano in Karangasem, exemplifies this duality revered by Balinese Hindus and feared for its deadly eruptions, including the catastrophic event in 1963 and its reawakening in 2017. In Karangasem, disaster risk reduction has progressed through a fusion of local leadership and geospatial innovation. Participatory mapping, drone surveys, and open data platforms now support early warning systems and contingency planning. Community-based programs such as Desa Tangguh Bencana and the Centre of Excellence initiative empower residents to map hazards, design evacuation routes, and conduct preparedness drills.

In October 2025, the End-to-End Mapping Solution was completed in Karangasem through collaboration between BPBD Karangasem, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), AP-Hub, and local communities. This initiative deployed tools such as Drone Tasking Manager, Field Tasking Manager, and ChatMap to orchestrate a seamless workflow from aerial data capture to field validation and coordination. The mapping effort focused not only on producing accurate geospatial outputs, but also on building systems that communities can sustain and scale. Orthophotos, hazard maps, and metadata protocols were designed to be locally relevant and technically sound. Facilitation methods translated complex tools into accessible knowledge, fostering shared learning and leadership. The resulting knowledge management system connects field data to policy frameworks, ensuring that outputs inform village-level disaster preparedness strategies and early warning protocols. Mount Agung, once a symbol of destruction, now anchors a movement of community-led resilience where open data, local wisdom, and global solidarity converge to protect lives and livelihoods.

As an Open Mapping Guru, it’s a privilege of mentoring BPBD Karangasem in deploying cutting-edge tools like Drone Tasking Manager, Field Tasking Manager, and ChatMap to orchestrate a seamless workflow from aerial data capture to field validation and coordination. Joining the End-to-End Mapping Solution in Karangasem, Bali, this role brings a fusion of technical mastery, participatory leadership, and system design thinking to strengthen disaster resilience at the community level. The responsibility is not only to deliver accurate geospatial outputs but to build systems that empower local actors to sustain and scale them. We guiding teams through drone mapping workflows, open data protocols, and folder architecture design. Every orthophoto, hazard map, and metadata tag is ensured to be not just technically sound, but locally owned and contextually relevant. The facilitation style blends empathy with precision translating complex tools into accessible knowledge, and turning mapping sessions into spaces of shared learning and leadership.

🛠️ The Tools: HOT’s Technology Innovation Tools

Three key tools from HOT’s technology ecosystem played a central role:

🚁1. Drone Tasking Manager (DTM)

Drone Tasking Manager (Drone TM) is not merely a flight coordination tool—it is a modular, open-source geospatial infrastructure that operationalizes community-led aerial mapping into a scalable, interoperable disaster resilience system. Its deployment in Karangasem, Bali, where Mount Agung’s volcanic threat demands rapid and localized geospatial intelligence, exemplifies how Drone TM transforms drone mapping from a fragmented activity into a systematized, multi-actor workflow. DTM enabled coordinated drone missions across the hazard zone. Gurus and BPBD staff used it to plan flights, assign tasks, and ensure coverage of critical areas. With DTM, drone operations became structured, safe, and replicable.

🗺️2. Field Tasking Manager (FTM)

Field Tasking Manager (Field TM) is an open-source platform developed by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) to support coordinated field mapping efforts. It allows project managers to define areas of interest, assign tasks to mappers, and monitor progress in real time. Unlike traditional mapping tools that focus on remote digitization, Field TM is designed for on-the-ground data collection, often using mobile apps like ODK, KoboToolbox, or QField.

FTM empowered offline field data collection. During the residential mapping phase, BPBD teams will use FTM to validate drone imagery, collect household-level data, and tag infrastructure relevant to evacuation and EWS planning. It bridged the gap between aerial data and ground truth.

💬3. ChatMap

ChatMap is a lightweight, open-source platform developed by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) that enables mapping through chat apps. It extracts location data, text, images, and videos from everyday conversations and converts them into structured geospatial information. This allows communities especially those with low digital literacy or limited internet access to contribute to mapping efforts using tools they already know: WhatsApp. Unlike traditional mapping platforms that require specialized software or training, ChatMap works by simply sending a message with a location pin, photo, or description in WhatsApp group. The system parses that input and places it on a map, creating a live, community-sourced spatial dataset.

ChatMap provided real-time situational awareness. As teams moved between training rooms, field sites, and drone launch zones, ChatMap kept everyone connected. It allowed instant updates, direct report from the disaster affected, coordination, and decision-making especially vital in dynamic disaster contexts.

🌏The integration of these technologies not only strengthens disaster risk reduction efforts but also opens up opportunities for broader applications across sectors. These open mapping tools can be utilized for participatory spatial planning, environmental monitoring, public infrastructure mapping, climate adaptation, socio-economic profiling, indigenous land documentation, and transparent community-based project tracking. By combining community engagement with open-source innovation, this system empowers local actors to manage spatial data and make informed decisions. It demonstrates that mapping is not just a technical process, but a foundation for inclusive governance, spatial justice, and resilience rooted in community strength.

Dive into the learning journey💡