Foresight

Inspiration

The inspiration for Foresight comes from the need for accessible and practical natural hazard education in an era defined by escalating climate risk.

Climate-related disasters now cause over 90% of major global hazards
True annual costs surpass $2.3 trillion when accounting for long-term economic and environmental disruption
Understanding and preparing for these risks has become essential for everyone

While all communities face growing threats, the most vulnerable populations are disproportionately affected when information is not available. This includes nations like the Philippines and Bangladesh, as well as individuals with fewer resources.

This knowledge gap is critical for anyone in a high-risk zone or relocating to a new area, as a lack of awareness can lead to severe financial and personal losses from a single disaster.

Foresight directly bridges this gap. By providing clear, location-based information on hazards and actionable preparedness strategies, we equip every user with the knowledge to understand their specific risks, safeguard their homes, and build true resilience for an uncertain future.

What It Does

Foresight is an interactive map created to view and plan for natural disasters your home might face.

Data-Driven Risk Assessment:

Pulls data from FEMA, USGS, and Cal Fire
Creates an intuitive, color-coded risk map
Type in any address to see ratings for wildfires, floods, earthquakes, and more

Personalized Action Plans:

Based on your chosen area and historical statistics
Breakdown of easy steps you can take right now
Long-term prevention strategies

Real-World Stakes:

Simple comparison of potential damage costs vs. money saved by being prepared
Integrates visual insights and preparation strategies to help you protect what matters most

How We Built It

Foresight is built with Next.js 15 using the App Router and TypeScript for type safety. The UI is styled with Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui components.

For mapping, we use Mapbox GL JS via react-map-gl to render an interactive 3D terrain map with multiple risk overlay layers. County boundaries and fault lines are stored as GeoJSON and rendered dynamically based on the selected risk type.

Turf.js powers our geospatial calculations:

Point-in-polygon detection identifies which county the user is located in
Nearest-point-on-line calculations determine distance to the closest fault line
Distance measurements are converted to miles for intuitive display

Risk scores are pulled from county-level FEMA National Risk Index data, then adjusted based on proximity to fault lines (using USGS data), fire hazard severity zones (Cal Fire), and flood zones. The final scores are normalized to a 0 to 10 scale with clear risk level indicators.

Data	Source
County Risk Scores	FEMA National Risk Index
Fault Lines	USGS Quaternary Fault Database
Fire Hazard Zones	Cal Fire FHSZ
Flood Zones	FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer

All calculations run client-side with no backend server required. No user data is stored.

Challenges We Ran Into

Design Challenge

Creating an intuitive and accessible user experience from inherently complex and technical data.

Our core mission was making hazard maps and risk assessments understandable to everyone. This required us to think deeply about design:

Experimented with color schemes to ensure visual distinction for different disaster types
Ensured universal interpretability (for example, avoiding red-green reliance)
Iterated on map shading, boundary shapes, and overlay transparency
Presented multiple risk layers without overwhelming the user

Technical Challenge

Validating the app's accuracy:

Manually reviewed risk outputs for 5+ distinct locations in California
Cross-referenced findings with official FEMA and Cal Fire documentation
Ensured backend data extraction and processing logic correctly translated raw data into reliable insights

The goal: Build trust by ensuring our clean, visual story of risk was not only clear but also scientifically precise.

Accomplishments We're Proud Of

Successfully designed and launched an interactive platform that transforms complex government data from FEMA, USGS, and Cal Fire into clear, visual risk maps and personalized action plans
Rigorously tested and validated our system across multiple locations
Built a tool that is both reliable and highly accessible
Created a practical solution that encourages individuals to understand their local hazards and take informed steps toward preparedness

What We Learned

The development of Foresight allowed us to gain an understanding in addressing a critical societal gap: the inaccessibility of life-saving and harm-reducing hazard information.

We learned to deeply analyze the root causes of this problem:

Complex data hidden in government portals
Lack of personalized guidance
Visualizations that were technical but not actionable

This understanding directly shaped our mission to transform expert-level risk data into clear, visually intuitive maps and plain-language action plans anyone can use.

Key takeaways:

Technical skill must be guided by a commitment to democratizing information
Honed the ability to synthesize multi-source scientific data
Design for clarity over complexity
Validate tools against real-world scenarios to ensure reliability

Ultimately, we learned that true impact lies not just in building an app, but in bridging the gap between public data and public understanding.

What's Next for Foresight

Looking ahead, Foresight is evolving into a fully global resource for destruction prevention in response to worldwide natural disasters.

Globalization

Our next major step is expanding our map library and underlying databases to access countries and regions worldwide.

Why this matters:

Reach more underprivileged communities
These communities are often the most vulnerable to destruction caused by natural disasters
They have the fewest resources to prepare