The context of disaster response is incredibly complex due to its chaotic nature and the large number of variabilities per disaster. This complexity makes it difficult for developers of digital tools for disaster response to understand the context of the products they develop. However, a lack of understanding of the use context can result in the development of ill-suited products that do not fulfill the user needs. Human-Centered Design (HCD) is a method to generate a better understanding of the user and the use context through the perspective of the user. It is an approach that is rooted in the belief that the people who face the problems are the starting point when developing a solution. 510 is a Netherlands Red Cross initiative that develops accessible digital tools for humanitarian response across the world. 510 products, which can be databases, models or software tools, are developed for different types of disasters in different countries across the world. In order to ensure that the products are solving user needs and in order to ensure that the products are suited for the context in which they will be employed, 510 aims to incorporate a Human-Centered Design (HCD) approach to their product development. However, the HCD methods are not yet structurally employed across all projects. The aim of this thesis is to understand how Human-Centered Design can be applied in the development of data and digital tools for humanitarian response. In order to achieve this, the reseach aims to (1) understand the factors that enable and hinder the implementation of HCD, to (2) translate these into required elements for HCD implementation, to (3) understand the needs for HCD in the development of response technology and to (4) make a proposal for the implementation of a human-centered product development process for 510. The case study presents several insights in the implementation of HCD for digital tools for disaster response within humanitarian organizations like the Netherlands Red Cross. Three lessons about implementing HCD are: HCD is already done in many ways, HCD covers all aspects of the organization and should be implemented by everyone in the organization. Three elements for successful implementation of HCD are found to include: a clearly defined role and scope for HCD activities, an embedded workflow that complements existing product development and a communication plan that guides HCD throughout the organization and promotes participation and transparency. Identified suitable roles for HCD in the development of response technology are: supporting the formulation of human-centered project goals, generating an understanding of the user and their direct context and the design of usable and suitable products.

Forestation originated in the planting of forest plantations with timber-sourcing as a goal. The practice has since changed to include a much wider number of forest types and aims. In recent years, forestation efforts are increasingly focused on forest ecosystem generation. These forest ecosystems can have a wide variety of goals, including Climate Adaptation and Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction. Forest ecosystems can help in Disaster Risk Reduction in two ways; they can decrease exposure to disasters (for example through increasing soil stability and decreasing landslides) as well as increase community resilience (for example through diversifying the income of local communities). These forest ecosystems require a different project approach than forest plantations as they need to be sustained on a much longer time-scale and their success often depends on interaction with the surrounding communities. One part of the planning- and decision-making process of forestation projects is spatial analysis. Large scale spatial analysis used in the initial phases of forestation projects to identify suitable areas for forestation. Most current analyses focus on bio-physical factors for single tree species. However, forest ecosystems projects include a wider variety of species and social factors are crucial in their success. Therefore, this research aims to understand the possibility of using socio-economic factors as spatial indicators in the planning of forest ecosystem projects. In order to understand the possibility of using different indicators for forest ecosystem suitability analysis, a number of bio-physical and socio-economic indicators are compared to forestation success for existing forestation projects in Ethiopia. Forestation projects are assessed from 5 different organizations with a total of 12 projects and 67 forestation sites. A literature review is conducted to understand factors influencing forestation success. From all identified factors influencing forestation success, 11 indicators are chosen based on data availability and limiting overlap in effects. Despite its lack of representation of social and economic success, vegetation growth, using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index or NDVI is identified as the most reliable way to determine forestation success because of the availability of consistent data for all projects. The suitability indicators selected are: soil texture, drainage, pH of soil, minimum monthly rain, solar radiation, elevation, distance to closest road, population, GDP, land cover and district. The forestation sites show a minimal average increase in NDVI. However, it is also found that areas without forestation projects with similar environmental and social factors show an increase in NDVI as well. When the success indicators of the reference sites are compared to the increase in NDVI, we see that the suitability indicators do not show a significant relationship with the NDVI increase over active project years. The study shows the importance of standardized monitoring of forestation projects in order to gather not only bio-physical improvement but also social success, especially for projects with a social purpose. The use of satellite imagery to make forestation success assessments do not only give an incomplete understanding of the forestation project, the data availability in temporal and spatial scale and resolution limit the assessment. Additionally, the study shows the difficulty in comparing varying project types with different aims, timespans and sizes. More research is needed that includes a larger number of forestation projects that have similar goals, methods, timespan and sizes, as well as a standardized reporting of social and environmental success. This could be achieved by combining data from several similar countries and by working closely together with forestation organizations that have standardized monitoring of their projects on both social and environmental success.