Please describe your proposed solution.
300,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian land (equivalent to almost the entire area of Germany) are contaminated by mines and explosives, as a result of large-scale military invasion. Full demining of affected territories will take many years and billions of dollars to complete, but the rapid and effective demining of critical infrastructure and agricultural land in the coming months can play a critical role in the socio-economic recovery of Ukraine.
Ukraine is one of the leading exporters of agricultural produce including #1 in Sunflower Oil (46% of Global exports) and #3 in Rapeseed (20% of Global exports). Many of the world’s major international corporations, particularly in the food sector depend on these supplies. At present, it is estimated that 30% of agricultural land in Ukraine will not be cultivated this year due to occupation, military operations, mines and lack of fuel. This will have a significant impact on food markets for years to come, including potential significant food shortages in the near term.
It is expected that major financial organisations and international corporations shall become a source of significant financial support intended to both expedite the socio-economic recovery of Ukraine itself, as well as help resolve global food-shortages and restore vital supply chains and markets that these organisations and their businesses depend on. Every dollar invested in demining today will save hundreds and thousands of dollars of economic damages in the coming years.
Our Mission: Help rapid socio-economic recovery and rebuilding of Ukraine from the horrors and destruction inflicted by the large-scale invasion. Providing lifesaving information to the citizens today and capturing information that will enter into the history books of tomorrow.
The proposed information management and DeFi platform will form an integral part of a major 5-year programme that will be carried out in close collaboration with the State Emergency Services of Ukraine to deploy a systemic solution for rapid large-scale humanitarian demining of Ukraine that will also include recruitment and training programme for demining personnel, as well as the development and deployment of autonomous demining equipment.
Specifically, as part of the proposed project we will develop and deploy a comprehensive information system for reporting, collection of data, planning of demining operations, removal of threats and clearance of contaminated land, as well as certification of cleared territories for civilian use.
The envisioned reporting and information management system will comprise three main components:
- Mobile application for civilian crowd-sourced reporting, mapping and tagging of suspicious objects, including remains of machinery, ammunition, mines or suspected mines, as well as potential human remains, or military personnel-related item
The submitted reports will be accompanied by automatically generated geolocation information that would dramatically simplify the collection and assimilation of relevant information. The reports will be identified by the user’s mobile number providing a mechanism for authentication, security, protection against misuse, as well as mechanism for potential communication with the reporting user.
The mobile application will also include educational material that will inform the public about the extent of affected territories, presence of potential threats and instructions pertaining to the safe conduct in affected areas. Users will be able to check whether particular locations are safe for civilian activity and will receive automated alerts in case of proximity to zones of danger.
The users will further receive an acknowledgement of their submissions and the subsequent updates on the status of their reported locations, providing incentive for active reporting of suspected objects.
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Centralised database for management of geospatial and contextual data, including an interface for reception and approval of incoming reports as well as an interface for planning and deployment of demining operation
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Mobile application for use by demining professionals for in-field mission planning, reporting and certification of cleared territories
Furthermore, the system will provide an infrastructure for blockchain-based distributed financing of humanitarian demining action, where the international community and the general public will be invited to engage and contribute financial support of the demining action. Specifically, platform will provide the following functionality
- Collection of philanthropic donations in support of humanitarian demining action
- Reporting of up-to-date information regarding the progress of the demining operations
- Donors, including global financial institutions, international corporations, as well as the general public will be able to to financially support the demining of a specific area of land, as well as track the progress of the demining action
- In the case of agricultural land, field boundaries will be provided that will allow for the support of demining action of a specific field, and subsequent tracking of agricultural activity on that field
- Local communities and farmers will be able to engage the international community and the general public to mobilise financial support for local demining action
- Donors will be able to engage directly with the land owners provided the consent of the owners
- Accountability and transparency reports on the use of finances
Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
The proposed system will showcase a quality Dapp with rapidly scalable adoption and immense socio-economic significance and will position Cardano as a leader in impact and government blockchain applications. The system will demonstrate effective integration with existing National Government Systems, including GICHD Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) and Digitalisation of Public Services of Ukraine (DIA). The system will further demonstrate a strong use case for impact DeFi infrastructure.
The envisioned system will significantly improve the efficacy of humanitarian demining action in Ukraine, reduce the risk of further loss of life, increase confidence of the population and the agricultural professionals in particular, and accelerate the socio-economic recovery of Ukraine. It will allow for effective coordination between multiple state-funded and private demining operators, as well as provide an additional source of financial support for demining action.
Furthermore, the proposed system will increase the awareness of the public to the threats of mines and military conflict-related debris, provide a platform for discrimination of educational material and best practices for conduct and rules of personal safety in the danger zones, where many Ukrainian civilians are now forced to carry out their everyday activities.
The system will further maximise visibility, accountability and transparency of the nation-wide humanitarian demining action that will increase the confidence of the potential donors in the efficacy and positive impact of their support, thus helping the mobilisation of the required financial resources.
The mobile interface for demining personnel will help streamline reporting and certification of cleared territories by reducing the heavy load of existing pen-and-paper reporting methodology.
The broader scope of our 5-year programme is aiming at reaching the rate of 20 ha per day per team for clearance of agricultural land by the end of the first year of operations. Our objective over the entire 5-year period is to make a significant contribution to the clearing of 300,000 ha of agricultural land that will unlock EUR 100M worth of annual agricultural production, or equivalent to 3.2MT of wheat sufficient to feed 40 million people.
We aspire to work with the leading global experts in humanitarian demining, such as GICHD (https://www.gichd.org/en/) to extend the scope of the project beyond the current conflict in Ukraine and provide technological infrastructure for humanitarian demining action worldwide.
What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?
Type of risk: Administrative
Description of risk: The envisioned system will have a large number of heterogeneous stakeholders and users from professional services and public officials to members of the military and the general public. Stakeholder management will present a major challenge.
Effect of risk: The wide adoption of the system may be impeded if the respective expectations of all relevant stakeholders are taken into consideration.
Mitigation methods: The system will be developed in collaboration with professional product managers and UX/UI designers, as well as in close contact with all relevant stakeholders. Detailed testing with all classes of users will be regularly conducted.
Type of risk: Security
Description of risk: The system should be secured against a range of misuse, interference and malignant attacks.
Effect of risk: Some information contained by the system can present security risks, or can be exploited by malignant actors. Misuse, spam and hacking attacks can have a wide range of detrimental effects that would ultimately lead to loss of confidence and failure of wide range adoption by both the professional services and the general public.
Mitigation methods: Careful attention will be given to the security and authentication mechanisms, message encryption, as well as user management and protection against hacking attacks.