‘Drones for Resilience’ Project Concludes In Addu City

Last Wednesday, the closing ceremony of the ‘Drones for Resilience’ project was held in Addu City. The project is a joint venture of Dhiraagu and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Maldives which aims to promote the use of drone technology for community-based disaster resilience planning in the country. As part of the project, Maldives Red Crescent volunteers in Addu City were provided with drones, orthomosaic maps and training with the assistance of Addu City Council.

During the closing ceremony, both Dhiraagu and UNDP Maldives reflected on the integral role played by the Maldivian Red Crescent in the project and expressed their thanks to the organization and the city council for their collaboration and support of the project.
In accordance with the Strategic Action Plan of the Maldives, the government of the Maldives is focusing on implementing disaster preparedness and climate action across its policy and planning. This project would help to ease the obstacles faced in data collection, particularly in disaster risk reduction.

The main objective of the project was to improve the capacity of Addu City to conduct risk-informed planning and develop evidence-based climate action plans. With the aid of drones, disaster risk assessments can be done in a detailed manner using real-time maps of islands. Thus, enhancing local authorities’ capacity for disaster preparedness and risk management.

Speaking in the closing ceremony, Minister of Environment, Climate Change & Technology, Aminath Shauna said “Technologies like drones and artificial intelligence have immense potential. The government remains committed to supporting the introduction of these technologies in combating the national challenges faced by our island and cities”.

The innovative project merged drone mapping with techniques to capture quality images to improve GIS, which was facilitated by Dhiraagu. Drones can be deployed rapidly and conveniently to assess damages and analysis can be done on high-risk areas such as coastal zones to identify loss due to slow-onset degradation from climate change, and safe zones within the islands.

Speaking on the occasion, CEO & MD of Dhiraagu Ismail Rasheed said “Dhiraagu is very happy to join forces with UNDP to deliver this project to Addu City. Protection and preservation of the environment is a key focus area of our Corporate Social Responsibility program. The high-resolution orthomosaic baseline digital maps and the equipment and training delivered as part of the project will be valuable tools that can be used to make data-driven decisions and build resilience into the city’s development plans with regard to climate change and growing environmental threats,”

“We believe in the replicability and scalability potential of ‘Drones for Resilience’. Coupled with the Government’s ambition to push for stronger autonomy of local governments through decentralization policies, there is potential for the application of the technology to greatly benefit the work of councils across the Maldives and equip them with science-based knowledge for decisions that benefit people and the environment” said UNDP Resident Representative to the Maldives, Enrico Gaveglia.