Case Study: Direct Relief accelerates wildfire response and population tracking with Esri ArcGIS Insights

Location Analytics Supports Nonprofit's Wildfire Relief Efforts

Direct Relief, a California-based nonprofit that delivers medical aid to people affected by disasters, faced a critical challenge during the 2018 Camp Fire: understanding where evacuees relocated so it could target delivery of protective masks, PPE, and other medical supplies. While using Facebook Disaster Maps for population movement data, the team needed a scalable, easy-to-visualize solution — so Direct Relief turned to ESRI and its ArcGIS Insights analysis software.

ESRI’s ArcGIS Insights let Direct Relief combine Facebook Disaster Maps with demographic and location data to visualize flows, estimate displaced populations, and build repeatable analysis models that could be shared with partners. The result was faster, more flexible situational awareness and improved collaboration during the Camp Fire (and reuse of the model for other crises like Cyclone Idai), enabling more efficient targeting and distribution of PPE and medical resources.

Direct Relief

Andrew Schroeder

Director of Research and Analysis