This mobile application (app) is designed to provide cholera early-warning risk maps for the Matlab region in Bangladesh. The app will be used by residents of this region in cooperation with project personnel in charge of developing and facilitating this project. The app is provided free of cost for the users. In order to be able to use this mobile app, the users have to register with a ‘Name’ and a unique 'User ID’ number, given to them by project personnel.

Cholera is an acute infection of the intestine and remains a major public health problem across many countries and regions of the developing world. This mobile application is designed to disseminate disease early-warning (risk maps and geospatial detailed risk information) directly to users in Matlab, Bangladesh at the grass-root level. The spatial resolution of the risk maps will be 1 km x 1 km grid cells, and the risk will be communicated through three risk categories (High, Medium, and Low). Depending on the risk levels in each grid cell, corresponding water usage and disease safety measures will also be delivered through the app. An accompanying field survey component of the project will use this app to collect information on app usage, changes in water usage behavior, and disease incidence rates. Using app and survey data, an avoided damages approach will quantify the value of a cholera early warning system that uses satellite-derived disease risk predictions.

This application was developed at the University of Rhode Island in collaboration with Moravian College, Pennsylvania State University and Virginia Tech University. The development of this application was funded by a research grant of the GABS (Grants for Assessing Benefits of Satellites) program administered by the Resources for the Future Foundation (RFF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).