By mid-July, Indonesia had already experienced a 167% year-on-year increase in fire hotspots nationwide.
Indonesia’s dry season was already forecast to run longer and drier than average this year, with BMKG projecting its peak across July–September. On top of that, El Niño strengthened through the season and is now sitting at strong intensity.
El Niño dries out land and vegetation, making any fire that starts easier to ignite and harder to contain.
Land condition decides how far it spreads once it starts. Degraded and drained peatland is far more flammable than intact forest, and burns differently; smoldering underground as well as across the surface, which makes it harder to fully extinguish and is why peat fires tend to produce the most persistent haze. Much of this year’s hotspot activity is concentrated in exactly these landscapes: land that has already been cleared or drained at some point, sitting drier than usual heading into an El Niño year.
There’s also a repetition problem; a lot of this year’s fires are happening on land that has burned before. That’s a pattern about geography and land management over time.
Put together: a longer, El Niño-primed dry season set the baseline; already-degraded, often-repeat-burn land excarberates the fire.
The scale of that overlap shows up in the historical comparison: cumulative hotspot counts this year have already accelerated faster than the same period in 2015 and 2019, two of the years Indonesia experienced its largest forest and land fires. Six provinces are currently on alert for forest and land fires: Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and South Kalimantan.
In Bantul, residents reported hillside land fires three separate times to PetaBencana.id in July — in Wukirsari on the 26th, in Selopamioro on the 26th, and in Mutihan, Srimartani on the 22nd — three different locations in the same regency, each burning independently within a three-week span. Further out, fires were reported in Bengkalis (Riau), Seram Bagian Timur (Maluku), Sulawesi Barat, Aceh Barat, and Majalengka. Haze from land fires was reported drifting over Sampit in Central Kalimantan, still lingering days after the fires that caused it.
From inside a community, this is what an elevated fire season looks like from inside a community, well before it becomes a headline event: recurring, spread across islands, and toxic haze affecting health, school, and transport.
What comes next
BMKG’s own forecast puts the actual peak of this year’s dry season in August, not July, with nearly half of Indonesia’s climate zones are expected to hit peak dry conditions next month. July was the lead-up.
A few things worth doing now, before that peak arrives:
If you’re in a fire-prone area, plan for water access now.Know your nearest water source (a river, well, etc). Clearing dry leaves and brush around your home helps too, and doesn’t depend on water at all.
If you’re in a haze-affected area, plan for air quality, particularly if anyone in your household has respiratory sensitivities. Masks on hand, especially for kids and older family members, and a plan for what happens if schools do suspend classes.
Report early. Early reporting can stop the spread of destructive fires. A hotspot caught in its first hour is a very different problem than one caught after it’s crossed into forest.
If you see smoke or fire, report it on PetaBencana,id. Early reports are what let response teams act before a fire spreads.
Floods in East Java and Sulawesi, a major earthquake in Palu, two active volcanoes (Semeru, Dukono, Lewotobi), land fires appearing in Sumatera and Kalimantan, and strong winds in Aceh and Bogor, all in the same 30-day window. These were the reports that came in through PetaBencana.id in June.
Across the month, communities reported flooding in East Java, Aceh, Sulawesi Selatan, Gorontalo, Kalimantan Timur, West Java, and Riau. They also reported land fires in Sumatera Selatan and Kalimantan Utara, and strong winds in Bogor and Aceh Utara; one report noting damage from wind on June 2 that had still not been repaired by the time the report was filed on June 3.
The June 16 earthquake in Palu drew particular attention, not only because of its 6.7 magnitude scale, but because of what it recalled; the 2018 earthquake, tsunami, and liquefaction that struck the same city remains one of the most complex and devastating disasters in Indonesia’s modern history.
At 10:27 on the morning of June 16, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck 42 kilometers southeast of Palu, Sulawesi Tengah. Within hours, several reports had been filed to PetaBencana from the affected area. From Kota Palu: ceiling panels collapsed. From Sigi: houses destroyed in Kecamatan Palolo, several completely gone. From Parigi Moutong: road damage along the trans-Palu-Palopo highway. From Palu again: Jembatan Palu III closed to traffic. Taken together, they traced the geography of impact across four administrative areas in the hours after the earthquake; structural damage in the city, road failure in the district, bridge closures at key crossings, and residential destruction in the sub-districts furthest from formal response.
While communication systems have improved since 2018, and evacuation procedures that were poorly understood in 2018 were more familiar, not all buildings have been built or strengthened to seismic standards.
This is not a failure of knowledge. The knowledge of how to build in Palu for Palu’s geology has existed for centuries. It just wasn’t the knowledge that got used.
At one of PetaBencana’s regular community gatherings, a youth ambassador from Palu shared that the traditional houses of the Kaili people, the dominant ethnic group of Central Sulawesi, whose settlements have occupied this seismic landscape for generations, were built to withstand the tectonic shifts that are prone to this area. Their foundations do not penetrate the ground. They rest on stone. When the earth moves, the building moves with it rather than against it. The joinery uses rattan ties, not nails or poured concrete. The materials, such as timber, bamboo, are flexible. The entire structural logic is oriented toward yielding, not resisting.
Communities who had lived for generations in one of the most seismically active corridors in the world had, over that time, developed a way of building that understood the ground beneath them. The transition to concrete construction often happened without carrying forward the structural principles that made traditional buildings resilient; lightness, flexibility, the capacity to move.
PetaBencana’s youth ambassador was not presenting a research paper. She brough this up the way local knowledge usually comes up, in conversation, as context. But it was the kind of knowledge that doesn’t typically appear in post-disaster engineering assessments or reconstruction guidelines.
This is what PetaBencana’s community network is designed to make possible: the elevation of knowledge held by the people who live in these places, who understand them in ways that no risk model fully captures.
Across hundreds of resident reports submitted to the real-time disaster map, PetaBencana,id during May 2026, floods were not only associated with heavy rainfall itself, but with failing infrastructures, drainage systems reaching capacity, tidal flooding creeping further inland, and water lingering long after storms had passed. In addition, several reports in May described flooding that arrived on top of conditions already in distress, or that triggered secondary disasters more destructive than the accumulation of water.
This points to several important shifts in how disasters are unfolding.
Flooding is becoming increasingly difficult to predict because the hazard is no longer limited to rainfall alone. Water now moves through landscapes already shaped by accumulated vulnerabilities: overloaded drainage systems, unstable riverbanks, saturated soil, land subsidence, erosion, and infrastructure under constant pressure.
In many cases the accumulation of water is not the primary disaster, but the trigger or context for structural failure. Several reports described landslides, road collapses, or bank erosion as the primary event: a landslide along the Kali Ciliwung in Depok (May 27); a landslide in Kampung Ardio, Kota Bogor (May 2); a cliff collapse onto a road in Ciamis (April 28); road erosion cutting off two villages in Lebong, Bengkulu (May 8). These sudden failures are often the most destructive because they emerge from conditions that are difficult to model precisely and unfold rapidly in dense and interconnected environments. This is why real-time information becomes increasingly important for save navigation and response.
Communities are reporting conditions that persist, recur, or compound; disasters unfolding on top of previous disasters. Several regions appeared repeatedly in the reports, particularly areas along the north coast of Java. Accumulated risk places increasing and constant stress on infrastructure, increasing the likelihoods of ‘sudden’ failures, or failures unanticipated in prediction models. Jl. Raya Sapan in Kabupaten Bandung flooded on May 21 and again on May 26, two separate reports from the same street within five days. Kutai Barat and Mahakam Ulu both reported river overflow from the Sungai Mahakam system within a day of each other on May 18 and 19. In Cianjur, a banjir bandang (flash flood) struck Desa Jamali on the night of April 30, with a report filed on May 1 noting that water had still not receded by the following day, with depths reaching 50 centimeters in residential areas. In Demak between May 13-26, the water rose to above 1 meter, fell to 36 cm, and rose again above 1 meter. For many communities, flooding is experienced as prolonged instability.
As climate patterns become less predictable, adaptation will depend not only on forecasting hazards, but on understanding how risk accumulates across neighborhoods, river systems, and everyday infrastructure. What communities are documenting through PetaBencana can function as a kind of early trigger system; not only for emergency response, but for identifying deeper shifts in environmental and infrastructural stress before they fully emerge as large-scale disasters.
One report submitted to PetaBencana in March stood out:
“Banjir yg tak pernah diketahui publik, pasti daerah ini selalu ke skip.” “Flooding that the public never knows about—this area always gets skipped.”
It is a short message, written in frustration, but it captures a deeper problem in how disasters are measured and understood. Many floods never appear in official datasets, risk models, or media coverage. They occur in small neighborhoods, on residential streets, or along overlooked drainage corridors. They may not meet the threshold of a “major disaster,” but they still disrupt daily life; flooding homes, blocking roads, and isolating communities.
Traditional flood risk models often rely heavily on rainfall data, river gauges, and historical flood maps. While these tools are essential, they can miss important details about how flooding actually unfolds on the ground. Urban drainage failures, localized river overflows, blocked canals, and changing land use patterns can all produce flooding that is highly localized and difficult to detect through remote sensing or rainfall-based modeling alone.
Community reporting is critical in surfacing these blind spots, identifying the areas most affected.
Mapping Hidden Floods
Throughout March, communities across Indonesia used PetaBencana to report hazards affecting their neighborhoods. Flooding was by far the most frequently reported event, with reports coming from Jakarta, Tangerang, Bogor, Aceh, Lampung, and East Java.
A clear pattern emerged in many of the descriptions: flooding was seldom a result of heavy rainfall, but to river systems and drainage corridors reaching their limits.
While many flood risk assessment focus primarily on rainfall intensity and river levels, climate change is not only increasing rainfall extremes, it is altering how water moves through cities and landscapes.
Urbanization reduces natural absorption through soil and vegetation. Drainage networks designed for historical rainfall patterns are often pushed beyond capacity. Rivers that once overflowed occasionally may now breach their banks more frequently.
The result is a growing number of hyperlocal flood events that occur outside traditional monitoring systems.
Platforms like PetaBencana help capture these shifts by documenting what communities experience in real time. When residents report rising water levels, blocked roads, or overflowing rivers, they are effectively creating a distributed network of observers, adding a critical layer of information that cannot be captured by rainfall sensors or satellite imagery alone.
In several areas, residents reported water remaining for multiple days, with some neighborhoods still inundated long after the initial rainfall had stopped. One report noted flooding that had persisted for three days, while others described water levels reaching waist height in residential areas.
This type of prolonged flooding is rarely captured in conventional flood models, which tend to focus on peak water levels during storm events. Yet for communities, the duration of flooding can be just as significant as its height. Prolonged inundation damages homes, disrupts livelihoods, and increases health risks.
By documenting conditions over time, community reports help reveal how disasters unfold beyond the moment of impact.
The knowledge of how floods unfold in neighborhoods—where water accumulates, which streets flood first, how long water remains—often exists only with the people who live there. Yet this knowledge rarely makes its way into the datasets used for disaster planning, risk modeling, or emergency response.
When this local knowledge becomes part of the data used to understand disasters, decision-making becomes far more grounded in reality.
As climate change reshapes rainfall patterns and urban flood dynamics, this kind of real-time documentation becomes even more valuable. It provides decision-makers, responders, and communities themselves with a clearer picture of where risks are emerging and how they are evolving.
Reading the report description “flooding that the public never knows about — this area always gets skipped,” we are reminded how much knowledge sits inside these short descriptions. When we built PetaBencana.id, this is exactly the kind of gap we were trying to address. Each report carries local memory, and there are thousands of these observations shared via PetaBencana.id. Together they form a growing archive of how disasters are actually experienced on the ground.
If there is one lesson from these “hidden floods,” it’s the people living with risk are often the ones who understand it best.
Bali is currently grappling with widespread flooding and extreme weather after several days of intense rainfall, strong winds, and unstable conditions across the island. Since 22 February 2026, heavy rain has saturated much of Bali — especially in Denpasar and Badung — leading to flooding in at least 26 locations, with water levels ranging from roughly 30 to 80 cm along streets and residential areas. Local disaster and rescue teams have been actively conducting evacuations and emergency responses amid ongoing precipitation.
Across Denpasar city and surrounding regencies, authorities have recorded not only flooded roads and homes but also ancillary impacts such as landslides and fallen trees. In some neighbourhoods, wind damage and riverbank breaches compounded the challenges faced by residents and first-responders.
As the continuous downpour overwhelms parts of Bali’s drainage infrastructure, leading to significant inundations in areas such as Sanur, Renon,Sesetan, and Legian, residents and responders are turning to PetaBencana.id, to view and share live conditions and navigate safely.
During the ongoing Bali floods, PetaBencana.id functions as more than an information website, it operates as a live coordination layer between communities, responders, and decision-makers.
As residents report where flooding is actively occuring, which roads are no longer passable, and which neighborhoods are in need of urgent evacuation, emergency services and first responders have swiftly responded.
This year’s wet season — typically spanning late December through February — has brought higher-than-average rainfall and volatile weather. Meteorological agencies warn that medium to extreme rain could persist through 24–26 February, raising concerns that further flooding remains possible in low-lying areas and along major waterways.
We remind residents to stay informed, stay safe, and share what you see via PetaBencana.id so we can continue to help eachother.
In November 2025, a series of typhoons and cyclones struck cities across Viet Nam, the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. As national governments mobilized response measures, the damage and the death toll, raised urgent questions about preparedness rather than response alone.
For more than a decade, ASEAN has built an elaborate disaster-management architecture, anchored in the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) and reinforced through regular ministerial meetings, coordination mechanisms, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercises.
The events of late 2025 offered a critical moment to assess how these frameworks function in practice. It was in this context that Pusat Studi Asia Tenggara (PSAT) convened a public discussion titled “Rethinking Disaster Management in Southeast Asia.” The conversation focused on a fundamental question: if disaster risks are well known and regional mechanisms are already in place, why do large-scale disasters continue to produce the same outcomes across ASEAN member states?
Environmental activist Puspa Dewy from WALHI situated disasters within a broader political and policy context. Floods, landslides, forest fires, and haze, she argued, are not random natural events but the cumulative outcomes of development choices, particularly deforestation, extractive industries, and large-scale land conversion.
As forests are cleared, peatlands drained, and rivers reshaped to accommodate development, natural hazards are transformed into disasters. The resulting risks and losses are borne disproportionately by communities that derive little benefit from these projects. Framing such events as “natural,” she noted, obscures responsibility and weakens accountability for the decisions that create vulnerability.
From WALHI’s perspective, disaster management cannot be treated as a purely technical or humanitarian issue. It is inseparable from land governance, corporate influence, and the state of democratic space. When communities raise concerns about environmental risk, they are frequently sidelined or intimidated, limiting their ability to participate meaningfully in prevention and oversight. In this context, improving disaster outcomes requires not only better response mechanisms, but stronger policies, enforcement, and protection for civic participation.
From the government’s perspective, Dr. Raditya Jati of BNPB argued that Indonesia already has the core frameworks and long-term roadmaps needed for effective disaster management, but continues to face challenges with implementation due to institutional silos and uneven implementation at the local level. Dr. Jati advocated for a model of sustainable resilience that integrates disaster risk management, climate adaptation, and development planning into a single policy approach, emphasizing that national resilience cannot be achieved without strengthening local capacity, governance, and coordination where hazards directly intersect with communities and infrastructure.
Taking the discussion to the regional level, Venkatachalam Anbumozhi from ERIA reframed disasters as a macroeconomic issue. Southeast Asia, he noted, experiences a disproportionate share of climate-induced disasters, losing an estimated two to three percent of GDP annually as a result. Despite this, governments continue to spend far more on emergency response than on long-term risk reduction. The reason, he suggested, is political economy. Disaster prevention requires long-term investment, while political cycles are short. Prevention rarely produces ribbon-cutting moments or immediate political rewards.
Yet treating disaster resilience as a cost rather than an investment is economically irrational. Without embedding disaster risk reduction into development and financial planning, Southeast Asia’s growth model will remain fragile and self-defeating.
Nashin Mahtani of Yayasan Peta Bencana, argued that ASEAN’s approach to disaster management reflects a deeper hesitation to act collectively. While ASEAN often describes itself as a family, she suggested that resilience is still treated primarily as a national responsibility rather than a shared regional asset.
Mahtani urged ASEAN to reconceptualize resilience as a regional public good, something that gains value when shared, scaled, and jointly maintained. This shift, she argued, should extend beyond emergency response to include preparedness, mitigation, and system-building. Drawing on the work with Yayasan Peta Bencana she pointed to concrete examples where shared infrastructure and interoperable data enabled successful scaling across borders. Yet across ASEAN, she noted, fragmentation remains the norm: countries repeatedly build parallel systems rather than multiplying impact through collaboration, a pattern seen clearly during the COVID-19 pandemic and replicated in disaster management platforms. If ASEAN truly understands itself as a family, she concluded, solidarity cannot begin only when one member is overwhelmed, it must also mean working collectively to ensure fewer members reach that breaking point in the first place.
For PetaBencana, this is not an abstract proposition. The tools, practices, and partnerships needed to treat resilience as a regional public good already exist. Community-generated data, open infrastructure, and interoperable systems have proven their value not only in accelerating response, but in strengthening trust between institutions and the people they serve. The question facing ASEAN is no longer whether collaboration is possible, but whether it is willing to scale what already works.
As disasters grow in frequency and complexity, no single country can manage risk in isolation. Resilience that is built collectively is stronger, faster, and more equitable than resilience built alone. If ASEAN is serious about responding “as one,” that commitment must extend beyond emergency moments to the quieter, harder work of preparedness, shared systems, and mutual trust.
The PSAT discussion made clear that improving disaster outcomes will require more than faster response or better coordination during emergencies. It demands political choices that prioritize prevention, integrate disaster risk into development planning, and enable meaningful participation from communities most affected by environmental change. At the regional level, it also requires ASEAN to move beyond parallel national efforts toward genuinely shared systems and approaches.
On September 10, 2025 Bali experienced one of its worst flooding events in history, triggering the provincial government and the National Emergency Management Agency to declare a state of emergency. Severe flooding across Denpasar, Kuta, and surrounding districts, inundated homes and major roads, and forced evacuations.
Within 24 hours, over 130,000 people used PetaBencana.id to view and share real-time flood updates, as the platform turned into a vital lifeline for residents, volunteers and authorities to coordinate safe navigation and to prioritize evacuation.
Residents in Perumahan Kalista and Kampung Jawa posted urgent updates on rising water levels along the Ayung and Tukad Badung rivers. These reports enabled first responders to direct evacuation teams to the riverside settlements before floodwaters became impassable.
Motorists shared images of flooded stretches of Jl. Sunset Road and Jl. Kayu Aya. PetaBencana’s live map allowed residents to avoid gridlocked intersections and reroute around submerged sections of the road.
In Kesiman Kertalangu, residents reported that 18 homes in Perumahan Pesona Kartika Tohpati were fully inundated. These crowd-sourced reports were used by volunteers to organize sandbagging and to assist families in relocating to higher ground.
Updates about the overflow of Sungai Taman Pancing guided responders in deploying boats and assisting families trapped along Jl. Taman Pancing Barat–Timur.
Emergency services confirmed that PetaBencana data was used alongside official coordination channels to deploy rescue teams and manage traffic flow. For many residents, the platform became a critical navigation tool that reflected rapidly changing conditions.
The intensity of the flood cannot be explained by rainfall alone. In urban centers such as Denpasar and Kuta, rapid development has left drainage systems unable to absorb sudden runoff, while climate scientists warn that extreme rainfall events like this are becoming increasingly frequent across Indonesia.
In many of these areas, residents reported water levels reaching up to an adult’s chest or head height, leaving entire housing complexes inundated and dozens of roads impassable. BMKG (Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency) has warned of continued heavy rainfall across Bali in the coming days. Communities are urged to remain alert, monitor official advisories, and make use of PetaBencana.id to share and access real-time information on flooding.
“Today’s events underscore how quickly conditions can change,” said Nashin Mahtani, Director of Yayasan Peta Bencana (Disaster Map Foundation). “We encourage everyone to use the platform to report flooding in their neighborhoods and to check the map before traveling, so that together we can keep each other safe. Each report is an act of solidarity, together they give us the power to protect our families and to support one another.”
We are excited to continue building our software in solidarity with communities across the world.
As we grow, please refer to our official channels for the most accurate and current information about Disaster Map Foundation (Yayasan Peta Bencana) and our work.
Please note, we do not currently endorse or authorize any spin-off organizations, and we have no affiliates. If you come across initiatives claiming to represent or extend our work, feel free to verify with us directly.
Disaster Map Foundation (Yayasan Peta Bencana) remains the official steward of PetaBencana.id in Indonesia, MapaKalamidad.ph in the Philippines, and AafatInfo.pk in Pakistan, as well as the software that powers them.
At the recent UN climate negotiations in Bonn (SB62), talks have been marred by intense standoffs with little clarity on how the world will meet its adaptation goals. Recent discussions at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have failed to finalize the timeline for the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7), raising concerns about the availability of timely climate data for policy-making.
At a time when global climate science and action faces significant delays, local actors are stepping up to address the accelerating impacts of climate change. Today, we launched Peta Gotong Royong (Mutual Aid Map), a new AI-assisted platform designed to support peer-to-peer disaster relief, empower local action, and close critical gaps in humanitarian response. Built on the trusted foundation of PetaBencana.id — Peta Gotong Royong expands a decade-long commitment to strengthening community resilience through open, accessible technology.
“Communities must be equipped to act when disaster strikes,” said Nashin Mahtani, Director of Yayasan Peta Bencana. “Peta Gotong Royong builds upon the region’s strong traditions of mutual aid (“gotong royong”) by providing digital tools that match 21st-century challenges.”
Nashin Mahtani, Director of Disaster Map Foundation (Yayasan Peta Bencana) shared a preview of Peta Gotong Royong during the UN Global Platform for DRR in Geneva, where it received wide acclaim on the international stage.
Studies have shown that in the critical hours and days after a disaster, most life-saving actions and immediate aid come from those already on the ground. However, formal disaster response systems often struggle to integrate and support grassroots mutual aid effectively.
During disasters, social media platforms often become critical hubs for coordination and information sharing — but the sheer volume of posts can quickly become overwhelming, making it difficult to verify needs, prioritize responses, and ensure that aid reaches those who need it most. Peta Gotong Royong responds to these challenges by providing a free, open platform where anyone can report urgent needs, offer assistance, and be matched in real time — all using familiar tools like WhatsApp and mobile browsers. The platform is designed to harness the power of social media—where much of disaster response coordination already happens—and channel it into an organized, structured, actionable system that communities and volunteers can use.
“In times of crisis, it is communities that act as first responders. To build a more resilient Indonesia, we must continue to strengthen and harness the spirit of gotong royong (mutual aid), and one key way is through the use of PetaBencana.id. The risks we face can strike at any moment, and shared community-data through PetaBencana.id is both a vital contribution and a unique expression of gotong royong (mutual aid). The Mutual Aid Map (Peta Gotong Royong), as the latest initiative of PetaBencana.id, represents an important new form of collective action. Why is it called Gotong Royong (Mutual Aid)? Because it is leaderless, because we are all equal and we all work together to overcome the problems we face in our environments. The importance of this launch is to grow humanitarian support with Peta Gotong Royong by PetaBencana.id,” said Mr. Bambang Surya Putra, Director of Logistics and Equipment Management at the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) highlighting the importance of community participation in disaster response efforts.
Bambang Suryaputra, Director of Logistics and Equipment Management at the National Emergency Management Agency, highlights the importance of community participation via Peta Gotong Royong in disaster response efforts.
According to Indra Kurniawan, Head of the Disaster Management Department of Indonesian Red Cross Bogor 2015-2017 and also a Survivor of the Sukabumi Earthquake 2022,
“As a volunteer and community member who frequently responds directly to disaster sites, I truly understand the importance of fast and accurate information. Peta Gotong Royong by PetaBencana.id serves as a vital bridge—connecting residents, volunteers, communities, and the government—so we can recognize one another, support each other, and act together. It enables all stakeholders to easily identify unmet needs – whether it’s clean water, food, medicine – and respond more effectively. This is an important step forward in strengthening disaster response. I hope this tool continues to be socialized and used not only during disasters, but also in times of need. “
Already tested in early trial phases during the February 2025 floods, the platform demonstrated a 70% faster matching rate compared to conventional social media coordination alone.
“In March 2025, flash floods struck several areas in Padang Sidempuan, North Sumatra. Although I was far away in Deli Serdang, I coordinated with my colleagues from the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) in Padang Sidempuan to submit a request for assistance through the Peta Gotong Royong feature on PetaBencana.id. A few days later, my request was answered by a donor, and the flood victims were able to receive much-needed basic supplies, such as sanitary products for women.
The Peta Gotong Royong feature is incredibly useful for communities. It allows us to request essential aid for disaster survivors quickly and effectively.
Indeed, PetaBencana.id is a powerful platform—not only for reporting disasters but also for facilitating mutual aid. We’re not just able to ask for help; we can also contribute and support others in need.”
Supriadi, Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Deli Serdang, North Sumatra – Testimonial from a Peta Gotong Royong User
Zahrotul Ulya, Regional Executive Director of the Indonesian Family Planning Association in East Java underscored the importance of increasing community participation in disaster response and recovery. During the official launch event, she said
“Peta Gotong Royong by PetaBencana.id can invite more people to actively participate in providing assistance to those affected by disasters. With its easy access and transparent platform, communities feel more empowered to get involved and contribute meaningfully. The platform provides a tool to request a diverse set of needs including assistance for household needs, babies, children, and so on, providing a significant way to respond to specific needs during disasters.”
Echoing this statement, Al Razi Izzatul Yazid, Humanitarian Division Head of Rumah Zakat Indonesia emphasized the tool’s role in advancing locally-led humanitarian action, stating:
“The Mutual Aid Map (Peta Gotong Royong) by PetaBencana.id is a vital tool that helps identify urgent needs and empowers local communities, who are always the first responders in times of crisis. By supporting coordination and complementarity in humanitarian efforts, this platform embodies the core humanitarian commitment to effective, locally-led disaster response.”
I Nyoman Suartanu, from the Indonesian Hindu Dharma Council (PHDI), reflected on the cultural and spiritual resonance of the platform:
“Mutual aid is rooted in our humanity—it requires sincerity, volunteerism, and the willingness to rise above ego for the greater good. The latest initiative of PetaBencana.id, with Mutual Aid Map (Peta Gotong Royong), is not just a technological innovation; it is a moral call to unite across faiths and communities in the spirit of shared responsibility. At PHDI, our movement to love life aligns deeply with this initiative, and we are committed to strengthening disaster preparedness through collaboration, compassion, and collective action.”
The alignment with local wisdom was also praised by Yasser Atmanegara, Deputy Secretary of Muhammadiyah Disaster Management Center Jakarta, who stated:
“First of all I was very happy that this name was chosen appropriately because this is a technological breakthrough grounded in local wisdom, the spirit of gotong royong. Mutual Aid Map holds great promise as a platform for not only coordination, but collaboration, across organizations, enabling faster, more effective, and more direct aid distribution. It helps cut bureaucracy, supports peer-to-peer response, and becomes a vital record of public participation in disaster response and recovery. This shows how strong our society truly is when we work together.”
As Southeast Asia faces increasing climate risks, initiatives like Peta Gotong Royong demonstrate the potential of AI in enhancing disaster resilience and response. While global climate science navigates political challenges, local communities are taking proactive steps to safeguard their futures.
The platform also reflects broader trends toward decentralized disaster governance, as recognized in recent ASEAN frameworks on climate resilience. As global political delays threaten to slow global climate science and coordinated international response, innovations like Peta Gotong Royong offer a path forward — one where communities are not waiting for help, but leading the way.
Key Features of Peta Gotong Royong:
Real-Time Needs Reporting: Affected individuals can report their needs through the platform, allowing anyone to respond with precise and timely assistance.
Decentralized Matching System: Community members, local organizations, and volunteers can coordinate directly, reducing delays in aid distribution.
Open Data for Transparency: The platform maintains publicly accessible records of aid requests and fulfillment to enhance accountability and avoid duplication.
Seamless Integration with Social Media: Designed to work with popular messaging apps, making participation easy and accessible for a broad audience.
As part of the official commemoration of Hari Kesiapsiagaan Bencana (HKB) 2025, over 25,000 participants across 22 provinces were using AI tools to train their communities in disaster preparedness as part of a campaign organized by Yayasan Peta Bencana. Carried out under the spirit of #BergotongRoyong, the campaign activated youth leaders, educators, and community trainers to engage thousands in workshops, simulations, and collaborative preparedness activities.
Participants simulated real-time disaster reporting with DisasterBot, an AI-assisted bot developed by Yayasan Peta Bencana in partnership with BNPB. DisasterBot is an online chatbot – now integrated into WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter, and Facebook – that reaches out to residents in disaster affected areas and helps them to submit real-time disaster reports. These reports are mapped on a free and open source platform, PetaBencana.id, and used to assist government agencies and first responders in response and recovery.
“Technology alone doesn’t build resilience—people do,” said Nashin Mahtani, director of Yayasan Peta Bencana. “The true power lies in pairing the deep, place-based knowledge of communities with the amplifying capacities of technologies we have today to create a response system that is faster, more accurate, and more deeply rooted in the people it serves. When AI tools are designed carefully and collaboratively, with communities at the center, they can amplify local knowledge helping scale everyday acts of community coordination into a collective, life-saving force.”
HKB, a national initiative launched by Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB), calls on all sectors of Indonesian society to strengthen their readiness in the face of disasters. This year’s observance comes at a critical moment: as Indonesia and the broader region grapple with intensifying climate-related hazards—from extreme rainfall and flooding to prolonged drought and sea-level rise—community-centered disaster preparedness is more urgent than ever. Between January 1 and April 2, 2025, Indonesia faced 804 natural disasters, based on data from the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB). Floods topped the list as the most frequent disaster, with 547 reported cases.
One of the participants of PetaBencana’s campaign, Mr. Kasbu, from BPBD Rokan Hilir Regency, said that in facing a disaster, we cannot stand alone: “Because disasters can happen at any time, preparedness must begin as early as possible.” He emphasized the importance of mobilizing the community, working together to build resilience. “It’s never too late to start preparing,” he said.
“Mutual aid is not only carried out between communities, but can also be established with related government agencies. When communities reported flooding through the PetaBencana.id platform earlier this year, the report was immediately received and followed up with quick action by the local government. The government sent assistance in the form of heavy equipment to carry out dredging, in order to reduce the risk of flooding in the affected areas that had been reported by volunteers. Through the PetaBencana.id platform, residents also conveyed the various needs of affected residents directly from the field. This information allows the local government, BAZNAS, and the Social Service to distribute aid in a targeted manner. The spirit of true mutual cooperation is reflected in the involvement of all parties—both the community and the government—in building resilience together.”
Jumriah, a volunteer for BAZNAS Disaster Response in South Sulawesi, shared the role that technologies like PetaBencana.id plays in enabling communities to collaboratively respond during disasters—gathering important information about damage, number of victims, resource needs, and progress in the recovery process. With the power of verified informatiom, Jumriah demonstrated how every resident can come together to build a stronger, more climate resilient future. As discussions about resilience deepen, the campaign is also laying the groundwork for what comes next.
Building on more than a decade of community-driven disaster response work, Yayasan Peta Bencana is preparing to launch a new initiative: PetaGotongRoyong. The platform aims to expand the model of collective preparedness by supporting peer-to-peer coordination and mutual aid before, during, and after disasters.
PetaGotongRoyong enables neighbors to quickly locate help, share resources, and organize responses through an open, accessible digital interface. The platform builds on lessons from past emergencies—where communities have often improvised local solutions while waiting for formal aid—and reflects the growing need for flexible, community-led infrastructures as climate extremes become the new normal.
The official public launch of PetaGotongRoyong will take place on May 17, 2025, with a showcase of the technology and the stories of the communities helping to shape it.
As the region faces urgent environmental challenges, initiatives like HKB—and the systems of care they activate—highlight a broader shift in disaster governance. Not just toward early warning, but toward early organizing. Not just resilience, but solidarity,
And in Indonesia, where gotong royong is not a buzzword but a lived ethic, this movement is already underway.
