A Geospatial Donation Platform for COVID-19 and Beyond, Leveraging Location – Based Services and Geofencing

Abstract

The current global scenario is characterized by epidemics and various types of disasters, severely impacting communities' health, living conditions, and economic stability. Especially during such crises, the requirement for essential necessities becomes critical. Existing solution guidelines involve receiving donated items from public agencies through an offline system to provide assistance to victims. However, this implementation faces several limitations, such as a lack of understanding of people's needs in specific areas, leading to mismatches between assistance and actual requirements. Additionally, donators lack adequate information, resulting in further discrepancies between donated items and the victims' genuine needs. The available geospatial platforms primarily support surveillance and monitoring of epidemic or disaster situations but fail to address the management of needs related to donation and receipt. Through an extensive review of the literature and related research, it was identified that a geospatial platform specifically dedicated to donation management has not yet been developed. To address this gap, this research proposes the creation of a novel geospatial platform using data analysis and visualization methods, complemented by the integration of geofencing technology. By employing such an approach, the geospatial platform will play a pivotal role in enhancing disaster and epidemic assistance. It will facilitate efficient data processing and visualization, overcoming the limitations faced by the current offline system. Emphasis will be placed on improving the management of needs concerning donation and receipt, thereby mitigating mismatches between assistance and actual requirements. Consequently, this platform is expected to significantly enhance the effectiveness and targeting of aid distribution during times of crises.