G20 DRR Hackathon Background
G20 Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Hackathon
Background
South Africa is currently chair of the G20 group of countries. They are hosting a G20 Open Innovation Demonstrator Project on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) taking place September 2 to 5, 2025. From the organizers’ concept note, the hackathon:
…forms part of one of the proposed deliverables for the G20 Research and Innovation Working Group (RIWG) in 2025, namely to implement a Demonstrator Project under the broader theme of Disaster Risk Reduction using Open Innovation (DRR-OI). The G20 DRR-OI initiative aims to harness digital technologies, shared data systems, and collaborative problem-solving to enhance global resilience to disasters, particularly in water-stressed and climate-vulnerable regions.
The Hackathon challenge will build on existing platforms and prior demonstrator projects and serves as a testbed for collaborative innovation with real-world application…and as an example of how Open Innovation can contribute evidence to global dialogues on urban risk, climate adaptation, and digital innovation for development.
Hackathon Objective
The G20 RIWG Hackathon will deliver accurate mapping and short‑term forecasting, which combined with flood‑hazard overlays will help plan services, target upgrades, and improve early‑warning systems. This challenge builds on data structures developed during the previous disasters. Participants will be asked to build an end‑to‑end pipeline that will deliver the following:
- Change Detection – Identify recent growth in informal settlements.
- Forecast Expansion – Predict development over 1–3 years.
- Risk Classification – Overlay forecasts with flood hazard maps.
Hackathon Strategic Outcomes
The organizers hope the hackathon will produce the following strategic outcomes (in their words):
- “Improved ability to forecast and visualise informal urban expansion and associated flood risks using open geospatial and machine learning tools.
- “Strengthened national and international capacity in the application of AI, data science, and ethical innovation for disaster risk reduction (DRR).
- “Enhanced collaboration across government, academia, civil society, and the private sector in support of resilient, data-informed urban development.
- “Increased awareness and use of open innovation mechanisms to address climate vulnerability, urbanisation challenges, and inclusive service delivery.
- “Policy-relevant insights and technical models that can support municipal early warning systems, upgrade planning, and spatial targeting of infrastructure investment.”