OpenRelief - Explainable Food-Security Forecasting

❓ What Is OpenRelief?

OpenRelief is a humanitarian forecasting tool that helps aid organizations, governments, and researchers anticipate food shortages before they become crises. It combines several types of open data — conflict events, rainfall patterns, market food prices, and shipping logistics — to produce a clear, district-level risk score.

The key word is explainable. Unlike a “black box” AI that just gives a number, OpenRelief shows you why a district is at risk. Was it due to recent conflict? A drop in rainfall? A spike in maize prices? You’ll see the contributing factors visually, making it easier to trust, verify, and act on the forecast.

🎯 Why Use OpenRelief?

Early warning: Spot districts trending toward food insecurity weeks in advance.
Transparent predictions: Every forecast comes with a simple visual explanation.
Open data only: No proprietary datasets — everything is from public sources.
Built for humanitarian use: Designed alongside field experts, not just data scientists.
District-level granularity: National or regional maps hide local spikes; OpenRelief zooms in.

⚙️ Key Features

📊 Multi-Source Data Fusion

Automatically ingests conflict event reports, satellite rainfall estimates, market price boards, and shipping route updates — then aligns them by district and week.

🔍 Explainable AI (OpenTSLM)

Built on OpenTSLM (Open Time Series Linear Models), the model shows each input’s contribution to the risk score. No black boxes.

🗺️ Geospatial Visualization

Interactive map interface (React-based) displays color-coded risk levels for every district. Click any district to see its forecast drivers.

📅 Forecast Horizons

View 4-week, 8-week, and 12-week outlooks. Plan interventions with a clear timeline.

🔄 How It Works

Data collection: Every night, OpenRelief pulls new data from public APIs (conflict, weather, prices, shipping).
Model training: The OpenTSLM engine trains a lightweight linear model per district, learning historical patterns.
Forecast generation: The model predicts risk probabilities for the next 12 weeks.
Explanation output: A simple bar chart shows which factor (conflict, rain, price, or shipping) pushed the risk up or down.

⬇️ Download & Install (Windows)

Getting OpenRelief on your computer is simple. Just follow these steps:

Click the big download button below.
Visit this link to download the application. (You’ll land on the official GitHub page.
Once downloaded, you’ll have an executable file. Double-click it to run OpenRelief. No installation wizard, no extra steps — just launch and start exploring.

📥 Get OpenRelief (Free)

Works on Windows 10/11 • No programming required • No account needed

💻 What You Need

✅ Operating System: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)
✅ RAM: At least 4 GB (8 GB recommended)
✅ Storage: 500 MB free space for data cache
✅ Internet: Required for initial data download and updates
✅ Display: 1280×720 or higher (maps look best on 1080p+)

🌱 Who Is This For?

🏛️

Government Agencies

Monitor regional risk and allocate aid early.

🚑

NGOs & Red Cross

Prioritize field visits and supply pre-positioning.

🌾

Agricultural Analysts

Combine climate, conflict, market data intact forecasts.

🆘 Need Help?

Check the GitHub repository for documentation, example outputs, and community discussions. You can also open an issue if you find a bug or have a feature request.

💡 Tip: The first launch may take a few minuteswhile OpenRelief downloads the latest open datasets. Subsequent opens will be much faster.

OpenRelief is a free, open-source humanitarian technology project.

Data sources: ACLED, CHIRPS, WFP VAM, UN Comtrade — all openly licensed.

❤️ Built for humanity, with transparency.

🌍 OpenRelief - Know Food Risk Before It Hits