TerraGuard

Labels, Contacts & Filtering

Use labels to categorize and organize disaster events, and manage contact organizations and emergency contacts extracted from knowledge base content.

Overview

TerraGuard provides two complementary organizational tools: labels for categorizing and filtering events, and contacts for tracking organizations and individuals involved in disaster response. Together, they help teams organize information and quickly find what they need during active response operations.

Labels

Labels are user-defined tags that can be applied to events for categorization, prioritization, and workflow tracking. While TerraGuard automatically classifies events by type and alert level, labels give organizations the flexibility to add their own organizational layer.

Creating Labels

Labels are created at the organization level. Each label has:

  • Name — A short, descriptive identifier (e.g., "Monitoring", "Deploying", "Closed")
  • Color — A color for visual distinction in lists and maps
  • Description — Optional context about when to use this label

Screenshot: Labels management panel showing a list of custom labels with color swatches, names, descriptions, usage counts, and options to edit or delete each label

Applying Labels to Events

Labels can be applied to events from the event detail page or from the event list via a dropdown. Multiple labels can be applied to a single event.

Common label patterns used by humanitarian organizations:

LabelPurpose
MonitoringEvent is being watched but no action taken
DeployingTeam is actively deploying to this event
Assessment PhasePost-event assessment is underway
Response ActiveActive response operations
Winding DownResponse is being scaled back
ClosedEvent no longer requires attention
VF PriorityFlagged as a priority for the organization
Funding RequestAssociated with a funding request or appeal

Filtering by Labels

Labels integrate with the dashboard filtering system. You can:

  • Filter the event list to show only events with specific labels
  • Combine label filters with type, alert level, date, and country filters
  • Save filtered views as bookmarks for quick access

This is particularly useful for tracking a subset of events through a workflow — for example, viewing all events labeled "Assessment Phase" to check on ongoing field assessments.

Label Analytics

The labels overview shows:

  • How many events are tagged with each label
  • Distribution of labels across alert levels and event types
  • Timeline of label application for workflow tracking

Contact Organizations

TerraGuard automatically extracts contact organizations mentioned in knowledge base content — news articles, situation reports, and official advisories. This creates a structured directory of organizations involved in disaster response.

How Contact Extraction Works

When content is crawled and indexed for the knowledge base, an AI extraction step identifies:

  • Organization names (government agencies, NGOs, UN bodies, military units)
  • Associated roles (lead responder, coordinator, donor, logistics)
  • Contact information when available (phone numbers, emails, websites)
  • The context in which they are mentioned
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Contact Organization List

Screenshot: Contact organizations list showing extracted organizations with names, types (Government/NGO/UN/Military), associated events, and contact information availability indicators

Each contact organization entry includes:

FieldDescription
Organization NameFull name and common abbreviations
TypeGovernment, NGO, UN Agency, Military, Red Cross/Crescent, Private Sector
Associated EventsEvents where this organization is mentioned
RoleTheir reported role in the response (lead, support, logistics, funding)
Contact InfoAvailable phone numbers, emails, or websites
SourceWhich knowledge base entries mention this organization

Contact Details

Screenshot: Contact organization detail view showing the organization's full profile, all associated events, extracted contact information, and source citations from knowledge base entries

Clicking into a contact organization shows:

  • Full organization profile
  • All events where they are referenced
  • Extracted contact information with source citations
  • Timeline of mentions across the knowledge base
  • Links to the original source documents

Emergency Contacts & Hotlines

For active disaster events, the system extracts and highlights emergency-specific contact information:

  • Emergency hotline numbers published in official advisories
  • Evacuation coordination contacts
  • Search and rescue operation contacts
  • Humanitarian coordination desk numbers (OCHA, cluster leads)

These are surfaced prominently on the event detail page when available.

Combining Labels and Contacts

Labels and contacts work together to support response workflows:

  1. Triage — Label incoming events and review extracted contacts to understand who is responding
  2. Coordinate — Use contact information to reach out to organizations involved in the response
  3. Track — Update labels as the response progresses through phases
  4. Report — Filter by labels to generate reports on specific event subsets

Search and Discovery

The global search in TerraGuard indexes:

  • Event titles and descriptions
  • Label names
  • Contact organization names
  • Knowledge base content

This means you can search for an organization name and find all events where they are involved, or search for a label to find all events at a particular response stage.

Managing Labels and Contacts

Permissions

ActionRequired Role
Create/edit labelsManager or Admin
Apply labels to eventsMember or above
View contactsMember or above
Edit contact informationManager or Admin
Delete labelsAdmin only

Bulk Operations

For events affecting the same region or requiring similar response:

  • Bulk label — Select multiple events and apply a label to all of them
  • Export contacts — Download contact information as CSV for offline use
  • Merge contacts — Combine duplicate organization entries

Next Steps

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