Wearable for Disaster Mitigation and Resilience (Kamaishi, Japan)

In times of disaster, every second counts — requiring quick-thinking and the ability to assess and respond. The wearable for disaster mitigation and resilience is envisioned as the ultimate kit that civilians can reach when a disaster strikes.

X-Crop designed the wearable for disaster mitigation and resilience around the notion of ‘disaster superhero’ to enable communities prepare for future disasters and foster wellbeing, confidence, pride and aspiration among children and young people before and after a disaster. The wearable is developed in the form of a modular kit and embedded with familiar technologies to enable easy acceptance by the public. It comes with a number of features, which can be worn at once or in different configurations.

Disaster superheroes are locals individuals or groups of people who would become superheroes for their communities, and henceforth, provide training and support to the rest of their community. They are envisioned to be young people from each neighbourhood who are given the responsibility by the city’s Mayor to act as a local response team — empowering citizens and leading the chain of survival in the case of a disaster.

Through this wearable, civilians can not only be tracked and found, but also able to communicate with each other within their location. Each wearer can be identified based on their ID, whilst the features included in their wearable allows them to capture and share information on-the-go.