Our team is committed to creating adaptation technology that fosters trust and strengthens communities.
HelpMap Agency is made up of a diverse team of researchers, designers, technologists, and community practitioners who bring wide-ranging experience to the work of climate adaptation. Our backgrounds span emergency response, urban design, open source development, public health, and participatory research, giving us the flexibility and depth needed to operate across a variety of complex situations.
We work collaboratively across languages, cultures, and disciplines, ensuring that every pilot and research initiative is grounded by local knowledge and shaped by the people most affected by climate risk. This approach allows us to move quickly while maintaining trust, accuracy, and accountability.
Our efforts are guided by an expert Advisory Board, whose members bring decades of leadership in climate and data science, urban adaptation, and humanitarian and disaster response. Their strategic guidance ensures our mission remains focused on delivering digital public goods to the most affected people and places through the provisioning of equitable, accessible, and trusted adaptation technology.
our history
HelpMap Agency builds on over fifteen years of research, fieldwork, and collaboration in community-led disaster response and climate adaptation. This work began with a simple but enduring question: how can people share reliable, actionable information in moments of crisis?
Across diverse contexts—from dense urban environments to remote and underserved regions—this question led to the development of CogniCity OSS.* Our early efforts demonstrated that when communities are equipped with accessible tools and trusted processes, they can generate powerful forms of collective intelligence that strengthen response, coordination, and care.
Over time, this work expanded through partnerships with residents, researchers, governments, and civil society organizations, forming a growing network of practitioners committed to open, inclusive approaches to adaptation. What emerged was a shared understanding: effective adaptation must be grounded in local knowledge, shaped through participation, and supported by transparent, accessible infrastructure.
HelpMap Agency extends and amplifies this trajectory by advancing open source adaptation technologies and supporting their deployment in real-world conditions. Our focus is on building reliable systems, as well as sustaining the relationships, practices, and trust that make these systems meaningful and effective.
As emergencies intensify, the need for shared, community-centered infrastructure becomes more urgent. HelpMap Agency exists to ensure that the knowledge, tools, and networks developed through this work remain open, accessible, and responsive to the communities that rely on them.
*In 2020, the M+ Museum for Visual Culture in Hong Kong acquired the source code for CogniCity OSS for its permanent collection of 21st century urban design and commissioned the film The Same River, Twice, which tells the history of its design and adoption by users in South and Southeast Asia.
our history
HelpMap Agency builds on over fifteen years of research, fieldwork, and collaboration in community-led disaster response and climate adaptation. This work began with a simple but enduring question: how can people share reliable, actionable information in moments of crisis?
Across diverse contexts—from dense urban environments to remote and underserved regions—this question led to the development of CogniCity OSS.* Our early efforts demonstrated that when communities are equipped with accessible tools and trusted processes, they can generate powerful forms of collective intelligence that strengthen response, coordination, and care.
Over time, this work expanded through partnerships with residents, researchers, governments, and civil society organizations, forming a growing network of practitioners committed to open, inclusive approaches to adaptation. What emerged was a shared understanding: effective adaptation must be grounded in local knowledge, shaped through participation, and supported by transparent, accessible infrastructure.
HelpMap Agency extends and amplifies this trajectory by advancing open source adaptation technologies and supporting their deployment in real-world conditions. Our focus is on building reliable systems, as well as sustaining the relationships, practices, and trust that make these systems meaningful and effective.
As emergencies intensify, the need for shared, community-centered infrastructure becomes more urgent. HelpMap Agency exists to ensure that the knowledge, tools, and networks developed through this work remain open, accessible, and responsive to the communities that rely on them.
*In 2020, the M+ Museum for Visual Culture in Hong Kong acquired the source code for CogniCity OSS for its permanent collection of 21st century urban design and commissioned the film The Same River, Twice, which tells the history of its design and adoption by users in South and Southeast Asia.
