thinkhazard.org

What It Is

ThinkHazard! is a web-based tool for non-specialist users, designed to quickly identify natural hazard risks during the planning stage of new development projects. Users only need to enter the country, province/state, or district-level administrative area where a project is located to see whether that area has high, medium, or low risk-awareness levels across multiple types of hazards. Its positioning is a “simple flagging system” and risk-awareness tool, rather than a detailed engineering risk analysis platform.

Core Features and Data Approach

The tool covers hazard types including river flood, urban flood, coastal flood, earthquake, landslide, tsunami, volcano, cyclone, water scarcity, extreme heat, and wildfire. Its results are based on available hazard data and show the highest hazard level within the selected administrative area. The system also provides risk-reduction recommendations, guidance materials, links to national risk assessments and best practices, and notes on how climate change may affect relevant hazards.

Pricing, Open Source, and Deployment

The main text does not mention any commercial plans, subscription pricing, or paid features. The ThinkHazard! tool code is open source and available on GitHub under GNU GPL v3; text content is licensed under CC-BY-SA, while hazard-level classifications use CC-BY. The web tool is already available online, and its open-source nature means it could potentially be adapted by organizations. However, the main text does not provide clear self-hosting deployment documentation, SLA details, or enterprise support information.

Pros and Cons

Its strengths are a low barrier to use, broad coverage of hazard types, suitability for quick screening in the early stages of a project, and transparent methodology, data sources, and licensing information. The limitations are also clear: it does not provide fine-grained risk assessment for specific coordinate points, but instead returns the highest level by administrative boundary; it does not offer a real-time event or historical event database; and it cannot replace professional risk modeling, engineering surveys, or data from local authorities. The main text also indicates that the data was last published in 2020, so users should pay attention to data freshness.

Who It’s For and Access from China

It is suitable for international development organizations, government project teams, infrastructure planners, engineering consultants, and climate adaptation researchers conducting preliminary risk identification. The main text does not state whether it is accessible from China, and there is no payment-related information. For deeper analysis, users can refer to IDF CatRiskTools, GFDRR GeoNode, GeoSafe, or combine it with data platforms from China’s local natural resources, water resources, meteorological, seismic, and other competent authorities.