Bayanihan Maps: A project for Solid Waste Management in the Philippines FOSS4G Calgary

Bayanihan Maps: A project for Solid Waste Management in the Philippines

Smartphones and computer screens have become our primary “window” to the world, and no matter how much mess we have in the “real world” we don’t often talk about it online. This is addicting because we seem to have control over what our screens show us.

Our project aims to capture the country’s solid waste management problems in a fun way and bring this to people’s attention. The hope is to spark conversations and aid in creating policies that might bring people to action and even help prevent future hazards through open-source software and open data.

Last year, I started a team to join an international hackathon and build a mobile app for the good of the environment. Our app won the award as the "Most Innovative Project".

When we started, we knew that we have a big problem to tackle: that the Philippines is one of the least disciplined countries in solid waste management. And we asked, why does it seem that people don’t talk about it as much as we should online?

The Problem

Notice that no matter how much mess we have in the “real world” we don’t often talk about it online. We see politics, happy photos, and achievements, but rarely do we see messy locations shared on our social media streams.

This is because our smartphones and computer screens have become our primary “window” to the world, and it is addicting because we have control over what our screens show us.

We like kitties, we don’t like trash.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Our Solution

What if we have a system that could capture the country’s state when it comes to solid waste management, and bring this to people’s attention? Would it spark conversations? Could it aid in creating policies that might bring people to action and even prevent floods?

I think so.

This is why I have asked some of my dev friends to join me as I start a new quest.

The Quest

My team set out to create a mobile application where:

Users can snap photos of different garbage dumps (legit or not) and upload them
Locations are rated as Good or Bad
Data are then visualized in a map (points or heat map)

The Hope

With this mission I hope to:
- Bring the problem back in front of people’s faces. :)
- Spark conversations and actions.
- Aid NGOs and LGUs in policy-making.

Future Plans

Future developments will encourage users to report by having gamification in the app and will also be able to generate intelligent insights by having big data analysis on the backend.

We'll also have a way to mark bad locations as "Resolved", after which the marker and rating will change.

We will also have a feature to facilitate "Clean up drives" where an organizer can specify an area in the map for the drive. The cleanup drive can be "Joined" by users who want to join. There will be a "Scoring System" during a drive, and the organizers can "Add Rewards" for categories such as "Highest Score for Resolving Bad Areas" or "Highest Score for Reporting Bad Areas".