A hard-curated, field-oriented library for energy, water, food, shelter, sanitation, disaster response, and logistics — mined from open repositories and practitioner libraries, then filtered for robustness, replicability, and capture-resistance.
This atlas excludes glossy inspiration and focuses on executable capability: manuals, standards, datasets, open tools, and decision frameworks that still work when conditions degrade.
Many “helpful” resources fail under real stress: access disappears, tooling requires cloud accounts, licensing collapses, maintenance stops, or usage becomes policy-gated. This atlas prioritizes resources that remain usable when network access, capital, or institutional permission drops to zero.
This order prevents shallow “tool collecting” and forces capability to harden from standards → implementation → scaling.
These are “ore fields” — large indexes that contain many usable gems, plus plenty of noise. This atlas treats them as sources to repeatedly mine, not as final curated truth.
Large, actively maintained index of open-source sustainability projects (energy, water, ecosystems, etc.). Useful as the broadest discovery layer and to locate domain-specific software communities.
“Awesome list” focused on open tools for sustainable technology (energy modelling, hydrology, etc.). Strong for quickly finding canonical toolchains by domain.
Broad meta-index across sustainability topics. Valuable for discovery; quality varies by section and maintainer cadence.
Large climate-solutions list spanning projects, organizations, and actions. Useful for mapping “who exists” and what’s deployable, but requires hard filtering for field-ready, open, replicable material.
Official open repository for FAO publications (agroecology, irrigation, water, forests, fisheries, post-harvest, food safety, and more). This is one of the deepest “manual + reference” mines available.
Technical briefs and practical manuals for small-scale, appropriate technology across energy, WASH, agriculture, shelter, and disasters. This atlas leans heavily on Practical Answers because it is designed for real constraints.
Cross-sector humanitarian portal with large collections on shelter, WASH, DRR, logistics, and training. Often contains direct PDFs that remain accessible even when the main UI is restricted.
These define minimum viable conditions (water quantity, sanitation, shelter, site planning) and reduce improvisation errors.
Minimum standards for humanitarian response: WASH, shelter & settlements, food security & nutrition, and health. Treat as a baseline constraint system.
Facilitator materials for running Sphere trainings; also useful for structured self-study and group onboarding.
Operational, field-oriented guidance on settlement planning, shelter standards, and response strategy framing.
Classic guidance on emergency shelter and post-disaster housing logic (policy + program).
Decision and implementation guidance: when transitional shelter is appropriate, and how to design programs that do not trap people in “temporary permanence.”
Design reviews by structural engineers of shelter designs built at scale. Use as a design critique engine, not as copy-paste plans.
Integrates disaster risk reduction into WASH programming across emergency cycle phases.
Broad DRR practice review: principles, implementation patterns, assessment, and monitoring.
Rapid assessment logic and field tools intended for the first weeks of an emergency; prevents “analysis paralysis” without surrendering rigor.
Detailed WASH guidance for refugee and displacement contexts.
Energy is treated as: (1) production, (2) storage, (3) distribution, (4) monitoring, (5) maintenance under degraded parts availability. This section is split into: practical build manuals → measurement/monitoring → modeling → datasets/atlases.
Step-by-step installation guidance for small PV systems — the “first workable unit” for household electrification and lighting circuits.
Micro-hydro fundamentals: head/flow calculation, turbine classes, scheme layout. Use to evaluate feasibility before capital burn.
Biogas basics and deployment considerations. Strong potential, but safety + maintenance discipline are non-optional.
Indoor smoke mitigation through venting strategies; pairs naturally with health/WASH baselines.
Larger-scale cooking setups (schools, camps, hospitals). Useful for community kitchens and emergency feeding.
Intro to wind energy fundamentals and evaluation; pairs with the Global Wind Atlas for site screening.
Wind-powered water lifting — a critical bridge between energy and water security when fuel supply is uncertain.
Briquette production and presses — converts loose biomass residues into transportable fuel blocks.
Open-source hardware and firmware building blocks (charge controllers, BMS) for renewable systems.
Open monitoring for electricity/solar/storage/heat; useful for verifying performance and catching failure early.
Desktop techno-economic modeling for energy projects. Strong for feasibility, but assumes a planning environment.
Optimization tooling for DER sizing and dispatch; use when a compute-enabled planning layer exists.
Open framework for optimizing modern power systems (renewables, storage, multi-sector coupling).
Energy system modeling from districts to continents; strong for scenario exploration when data is available.
Long-term integrated energy planning model generator; widely used in capacity building contexts.
Open tool for power system modeling, analysis, and optimization; useful for distribution network studies.
Global solar resource and PV potential screening.
Global wind screening for siting and feasibility scanning.
High-resolution solar and meteorological time series; strong for engineering-grade modeling.
Wind resource datasets via API; supports integration studies and turbine performance work.
Water is treated as: source → treatment → storage → distribution → hygiene → maintenance. This section combines standards (Sphere/UNHCR), practical builds (Practical Answers), modeling (EPANET/WNTR), and production systems (FAO irrigation guidance).
Practical rainwater harvesting guidance and reconstruction context; a strong “low-tech → high impact” component.
Emergency water supply considerations; pairs naturally with Sphere WASH minimums and UNHCR WASH manual.
Human-powered shallow water lifting for irrigation and water movement; field-proven and locally manufacturable patterns.
Canonical open tool for modeling water distribution systems; foundation for resilience analysis when paired with WNTR.
EPANET-compatible Python package for resilience analysis under disruptions (damage, demand shifts, disaster scenarios).
Deep reference for irrigation systems: design, operation, and practical engineering considerations.
Use Sphere WASH standards as the non-negotiable baseline for any water/sanitation intervention.
Failures often happen at interfaces: distribution layout, pressure loss, contamination pathways, storage sizing, and post-event damage dynamics. EPANET and WNTR are the “engineering truth layer” that prevents optimistic hand-waving once systems exceed a handful of taps and pipes.
Food security is treated as: soil + water + seed → production → storage → processing → distribution → nutrition. This section anchors on FAO (deep references) and Practical Answers (implementation briefs).
Evidence, policies, practices, and a database of resources (articles, videos, case studies). Use as a “pattern library” for food systems that remain productive under shocks.
Practical framing tool for agroecology transitions and program design.
Post-harvest loss is often the hidden collapse vector. This is an example FAO reference on post-harvest handling and storage support.
Small-scale processing and QC patterns; important for nutrition, shelf life, and trade stability.
Macro-level forestry status and trends; useful for strategy, restoration direction, and risk scanning.
Fisheries/aquaculture status and “blue” food system context; relevant for coastal resilience planning.
Shelter is treated as: safety + climate + materials + labor + site constraints + upgrade path. This section anchors on UNHCR, Shelter Cluster, Shelter Projects, Sphere standards, and Practical Action construction briefs.
Settlement typologies, safe/secure settlements, planning principles, shelter needs assessment, and response strategy.
Transitional shelter as a strategy, not a product: includes program architecture and decision logic.
Program-level thinking for emergency shelter and reconstruction pathways.
Design critique and structural review reference for shelters built at scale.
Catalogue of shelter designs and reference options; treat as a starting library with strong adaptation needs.
Minimum standards: treat as constraints on space, safety, access, and services integration.
Waste is treated as: health risk + materials recovery + drainage resilience + urban survivability. This section is intentionally practical: toilets, solid waste systems, composting, and plastics recovery.
Low-cost eco-sanitation solutions, especially relevant where pits/septics fail (waterlogged/high water table contexts).
Intro to solid waste management with practical framing and implementation patterns.
Household-level composting patterns; reduces municipal load and improves soil health.
Technical and economic overview for setting up plastics recycling activities; includes enterprise framing.
Practical outline of mechanical recycling; relevant for urban flood/drainage resilience (plastics clog systems).
Logistics is treated as the “hidden infrastructure” that decides whether any other intervention survives contact with reality. This section focuses on handbooks and warehouse discipline.
Supply chain and logistics management guidance for humanitarian contexts.
Warehouse stock movement control, pre-positioning logic, and inventory discipline.
Transport access is a force multiplier. Labour-based road work references support local maintenance and rebuild under resource constraints.
Care and accessibility often break first. This channel aggregates guidance focused on older persons in emergencies.
Rights and operational considerations for older persons; useful for inclusion constraints in planning and distribution.
Spatial tooling is the “situational awareness layer” for water networks, hazards, settlement planning, energy siting, and logistics routing. This section focuses on open baselines that remain usable and extensible.
Core open GIS tool; critical for mapping assets, hazards, access routes, and service coverage.
Open geographic data layer; powers routing and local mapping in low-resource contexts.
Open Python package for Earth surface dynamics (hydrology/geomorphology); useful for hazard and landscape change modeling when compute exists.
Extend mapping resources by mining: Open Sustainable Technology and Awesome Sustainable Technology (see “Primary Mines”).