What I Built
ReliefLine is a disaster relief planning platform that replaces guesswork with data-driven precision. It bridges the gap between global alerts and local response in the Philippines by providing:
- Smart Relief Calculator: Instantly generates supply budgets (rice, water, family packs) based on official Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) government standards and census data.
- Real-Time Monitoring: Aggregates live disaster feeds from global monitoring systems into a single dashboard.
- Educational Hub: Offline-friendly guides to help Filipinos abroad and locals understand disaster preparedness.
- Impact Visualizer: Shows donors exactly what their contribution funds (e.g., "Feed 5 families for 2 days").
My Pitch Video
Demo
Live Site: relief-line.vercel.app
Try It Out:
- Calculator: Select "Metro Manila," enter a population, and see the exact relief budget required.
- Updates: Check the "Updates" tab for live, aggregated disaster feeds.
- Impact: Use the "How You Can Help" tool to see donation purchasing power.
- Guides: Download the print-optimized disaster preparedness manuals.
The Story Behind It
The Philippines faces ~20 typhoons a year, affecting millions of lives. When disaster strikes, relief planning is often reactive—planners guess how much rice or water is needed, leading to waste or shortages.
I built ReliefLine to standardize this process. It serves two distinct groups:
- Global Filipinos: Including the 2.3 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and the wider population who sent home $37 billion in remittances last year, requiring transparency to donate effectively.
- Local Agencies: Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Local Government Units (LGUs) covering 40,000 barangays who need accurate, compliant logistics tools to distribute aid faster.
Technical Highlights
The Stack
- Frontend: Next.js 14 (App Router), React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS
- Backend: Next.js API Routes, PostgreSQL + Drizzle ORM
- Visuals: Mapbox GL JS for geospatial data (work in progress)
- Data Sources: GDACS, USGS, Ambee, NewsData.io, PSGC (Census)
Key Features
- Intelligent Aggregation: Merges disaster data from 4+ sources—including the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS)—using coordinate-based matching (within 200km) to deduplicate events.
- DSWD-Compliant Math: "Digitized" the official Social Welfare manual. Calculations strictly follow government formulas (e.g., 1.2kg rice/person/day, 15% overhead buffer).
- Smart Caching: Implements aggressive caching strategies for external APIs to handle high traffic and rate limits during emergencies.
- Offline-First: Educational content is designed to be lightweight and print-ready for low-bandwidth areas.
Challenges Solved
- Location Mapping: Built a fuzzy matching system to link generic disaster alerts (e.g., "Storm near Luzon") to specific provinces and barangays in the Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC) database.
- Data Deduplication: Created logic to merge overlapping reports from quake sensors (USGS) and storm trackers (GDACS) into single, actionable events.
Data & Accuracy Disclosure
To ensure transparency for this submission, here is the breakdown of the data used in the platform:
- Disaster Feeds: All disaster alerts (Typhoons, Earthquakes) are live, real-time data pulled from USGS, GDACS, and NewsData.io.
- Formulas: All relief calculations are strictly based on the official DSWD Disaster Response Operations Guidelines.
- Geography: All location data (Provinces, Cities, Barangays) is sourced from the official Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC).
- Population: Data is currently fictional, but will be integrated with 2024 consensus results for more accurate information.
- Pricing: These are static estimates for the demo and do not currently reflect real-time inflation or regional price variances.