The Role of Technology in Scaling Disaster Resilience for the Most Vulnerable

At Build Change, our mission is deeply rooted in the belief that everyone, regardless of their socio-economic status, deserves to live in a disaster-resilient home. For years, we’ve witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of disasters on vulnerable communities, and we’re committed to breaking the cycle of destruction and rebuilding. Technology isn’t just about innovation or efficiency, but about increasing capacity to reach the hardest-to-reach, most vulnerable communities with this mission.

Our experience has shown us that systemic barriers often prevent the widespread adoption of resilient housing practices. These barriers range from a lack of awareness and technical expertise to financial constraints and policy gaps. To address these challenges, we developed BCtap, a technical assistance platform designed to overcome these obstacles and empower communities to retrofit preventatively before disasters strike.

BCtap represents a synthesis of our on-the-ground experience and advances in digital transformation across the globe. It’s more than just a tech solution; it’s an end-to-end platform that integrates our deep subject-matter expertise with accessible and inclusive digital tools. BCtap streamlines the entire resilient housing process, from initial assessments to construction and quality supervision.

We’re seeing remarkable improvements in efficiency with BCtap. Assessments can now be completed three times faster, and project launches are happening 20 times more quickly. This accelerated timeline means that families can transition from vulnerability to safety in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost. BCtap also optimizes resource allocation by reducing resource-intensive field visits by 33%. This allows us to serve more families with the same level of investment, maximizing our impact on the ground.

Through support from our partners at the Cisco Foundation, Twilio, and the Autodesk Foundation, BCtap has been built on a core of open-source software, industry-leading cloud solutions, and a multi-tenant, API-first architecture. This allows us to approach different housing typologies in an agile manner. Recognizing that many vulnerable communities have limited internet access, BCtap has a companion mobile app with offline capabilities, ensuring data collection and essential functions can continue uninterrupted. In addition, BCtap features custom APIs that interface with third-party applications like Autodesk Revit, providing a tech-first approach to design and engineering needs. We also prioritize gender inclusivity in our design, incorporating gender-neutral language, icons, and imagery.

Looking ahead, we’re focused on expanding BCtap’s reach and impact through strategic initiatives. One key area is integrating generative AI to enhance functionality and build capacity within our homeowner-centric approach. Supported by our partners at the Patrick J McGovern Foundation, we will be able to provide more personalized and effective solutions, tailoring our approach to the specific needs of each community we serve. We’re particularly excited about the potential of using AI to model climate risk and provide localized disaster risk and resilient engineering data, combined with geospatial data and analytics. By forming partnerships with local communities, governments, investors, and technology providers, we can integrate BCtap into existing housing programs and facilitate the large-scale adoption of disaster-resilient solutions.

Our commitment to data-driven decision-making is also central to our strategy. By adding automated user-measurement tools, we can continuously optimize the platform to maximize its impact on the ground. This iterative approach ensures that BCtap remains responsive to the evolving needs of the communities we serve. To that end, we are engaging in gathering user feedback through surveys incorporated into our training and onboarding process, utilizing both open-ended questions and established metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES), and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT).

At Build Change, we believe that disaster resilience is not just a technical challenge; it’s a social imperative. By combining our expertise in resilient construction with the power of AI, technology, and committed partners, we’re empowering vulnerable communities to protect themselves from the devastating effects of disasters and climate change.