Imagine a hurricane has just devastated your town – and flattened your home. Before you could even begin to consider rebuilding, you'd wait weeks – or even months – for a property assessor just to visit to take a look at the damage, let alone unlock the funds you need to get back on your feet. But what if you could take pictures of the damage on the day of the hurricane, using your smartphone, and upload them – and when your insurer receives them, they deposit the funds into your bank account on the same day? If this sounds like the future, it's not – it's happening now. Real-world impact In September 2021, we at Tractable launched our estimating technology for the home, in Japan.

Over the past several decades, climate change has led to major disasters in Eastern Africa countries including Tanzania. From floods, chronic droughts, landslides, strong winds and earthquakes to their secondary impacts of diseases and epidemics, these are some of the recent disasters plaguing Tanzania. These disasters lead to death and displacement of people, loss of properties and livelihoods, disruption of social networks and services such as water, food, and healthcare thereby leaving communities more vulnerable and susceptible to the next extreme event. Lack of disaster preparedness and awareness makes the situation worse as communities remain helpless in the event of disasters hence face its full impact. Combining citizen science and modern technological innovation provides an opportunity to build the resilience of communities and reduce risks.