Overview
UrbanFix is GSURF's flagship digital innovation project designed to transform how cities across Africa and the wider Global South identify, understand, and respond to urban challenges.
The platform enables citizens to report issues such as flooding, waste management problems, damaged roads, water supply disruptions, drainage blockages, broken streetlights, and other service delivery challenges using real-time geospatial information.
By connecting communities, local authorities, researchers, and development partners, UrbanFix aims to generate reliable urban data that supports evidence-based decision-making and more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable cities.

Why UrbanFix?
Many urban challenges remain unresolved because city authorities often lack timely, location-specific, and citizen-generated information. Existing reporting mechanisms may be fragmented, inaccessible, or provide limited feedback to residents.
UrbanFix is being developed to help bridge this gap by providing a simple, transparent, and scalable digital platform that strengthens communication between citizens and institutions while building a valuable urban intelligence database.

Objectives
UrbanFix seeks to:
• Enable citizens to report urban issues in real time.
• Improve communication between communities and responsible authorities.
• Support data-driven urban planning and service delivery.
• Generate evidence for urban resilience research and policy.
• Promote citizen participation in building resilient cities.
• Create a scalable platform for cities across the Global South.
Key Features (Version 1)
• Citizen issue reporting.
• Photo upload.
• GPS location capture.
• Interactive issue map.
• Report status tracking.
• Administrative dashboard.
• Basic analytics.

Future Development
Future versions of UrbanFix are expected to include:
• Artificial intelligence for issue classification.
• Urban resilience dashboards.
• Climate risk mapping.
• Infrastructure monitoring.
• Multilingual support.
• City performance indicators.
• Integration with municipal systems.
• Open data and research analytics.

Current Status
UrbanFix is currently under development by the GSURF Digital Innovation Team.
The first Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is scheduled for launch in September 2026, with pilot implementation planned before wider expansion to cities across Africa and the Global South.

Looking Ahead
UrbanFix represents GSURF's commitment to translating research into practical solutions that empower citizens, strengthen urban governance, and contribute to more resilient and sustainable cities.

GSURF Launches Development of UrbanFix to Advance Citizen-Powered Urban Intelligence Across the Global South
Date: July 2026
The Global South Urban Resilience Forum (GSURF) is pleased to announce the development of UrbanFix, its flagship digital innovation initiative aimed at strengthening urban resilience through citizen participation and real-time urban intelligence.
UrbanFix is being developed in response to a common challenge faced by cities across Africa and the wider Global South: while residents encounter issues such as flooding, illegal dumping, damaged roads, water supply interruptions, drainage failures, and other service delivery challenges every day, these problems are often underreported, fragmented across different channels, or insufficiently documented for informed decision-making.
The platform will enable citizens to report urban challenges using location-based technology and photographs, creating a growing evidence base that can support local authorities, researchers, development partners, and communities in understanding and responding to urban issues more effectively.
UrbanFix represents GSURF’s commitment to translating research into practical action by combining urban resilience, digital innovation, and citizen engagement. The platform is being designed as the foundation of a broader Urban Intelligence Platform that will evolve over time to include analytics, resilience indicators, and decision-support tools for cities across the Global South.
The first Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is currently under development and is expected to be launched in September 2026. Initial testing will focus on core reporting and data management features before additional capabilities are introduced in future releases.
As GSURF continues to expand its research, policy, and innovation portfolio, UrbanFix reflects the organisation’s belief that resilient cities are built not only through infrastructure investment, but also through better information, stronger institutions, and meaningful citizen participation.
GSURF looks forward to engaging communities, local authorities, researchers, and development partners as UrbanFix develops into a platform that supports more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable cities across the Global South.