The Outback Resilience Planner is a web-app designed to help people living in the Australian Outback prepare for disasters such as bushfires, floods and cyclones. In just two minutes, users receive personalised recommendations and resources to strengthen their homes, protect their families, and improve overall resilience.
From Idea to Prototype
We started the project inspired by the AI in the Outback Hackathon challenge: to create something that could make a tangible difference for people in remote communities. Our goal was to develop a targeted yet easy-to-use tool, something that could work today, but also be extended with AI capabilities in the future.
The result is a chatbot-inspired walkthrough that asks users about their home, location, and preparedness level. Based on their answers, it generates a personalised resilience report with practical advice and local resources.
Collaboration and Development
I worked on the project together with Anne Dikkerboom and Anne’s expertise in disaster risk management shaped the knowledge base behind the app, ensuring that every recommendation is relevant, evidence-based, and actionable. My focus was on designing the flow and building the product, using the AI UI designer Stitch to create a cohesive design system that fits our needs.
We used the deep research tools in ChatGPT to gather background information on disaster preparedness and regional challenges, and after a few days of preparation, we moved into development. With the previous planning and detailed prompts, we used the AI coding assistant Bolt to generate a fully functional app; Complete with logic, content, user interface and PDF report generation. Thanks to that structure, the final build came together quickly and worked almost perfectly on the first try.
Winning Project and Next Steps
We were thrilled that our project was selected as the winning entry at the AI in the Outback Hackathon. Huge thanks to Hakaroos for hosting such an amazing event.
As a next step, we are looking for partners in Australia who would like to further develop the app or even take it over, to bring it to more communities across the outback.
You can explore the Outback Resilience Planner here
