Requesting OSINT Hazards

OSINT hazards are hazard events detected through proprietary processing of open-source intelligence — news articles, social network feeds, and other authoritative sources of information. Where the hazards returned by Requesting Active Hazards originate from a single authoritative reporting agency (USGS for earthquakes, NHC for cyclones, and so on), OSINT hazards are detected by analysing and correlating open reporting, then resolving each event to a specific location and time.

The result is a hazard feed covering event types that authoritative agencies do not routinely publish as structured hazard data — civil unrest, combat, terrorism, active-shooter incidents, and infrastructure and transport disruptions — alongside floods reported in the press.

To request the list of current active OSINT hazards please use the route defined here:

Query active OSINT hazard events

get

Returns a 302 redirect to a pre-signed S3 URL. The resource at that URL contains gzipped NDJSON (newline-delimited JSON) with one hazard object per line.

OSINT hazards are detected through proprietary processing of open-source intelligence -- news articles, social network feeds, and other authoritative sources -- rather than reported by a single authoritative agency. The response shape mirrors /active-hazards-query, with an additional n2h block carrying the contributing sources and event-specific detail.

This endpoint requires a specific role on your credentials. It is not enabled by default. If you receive a 403, confirm with your sales contact or [e-mail] that your credentials carry the required role.

This redirect behaviour applies to both filtered and unfiltered requests. Clients must follow the redirect and decompress the gzipped response body to read hazard records.

All query parameters are optional. When none are provided the full set of active OSINT hazards is returned.

Authorizations

AuthorizationstringRequired

JWT access token obtained from POST /authorize. Tokens expire after 15 minutes.

Query parameters

namestringOptional

Filter by hazard name (partial match).

typestringOptional

Filter by hazard type. Comma-separated list for multiple values. One or more of CIVILUNREST, FLOOD, COMBAT, TERRORISM, ACTIVESHOOTER, INCIDENT.

Example: COMBAT,TERRORISM

sub_typestringOptional

Filter by hazard sub-type (hazard_sub_type). Comma-separated list for multiple values, and pairs naturally with type. Every type except FLOOD carries a sub-type; FLOOD has no sub-type system and is always an empty string, so filtering FLOOD by sub_type returns nothing.

Valid values by type:

• CIVILUNREST -- PROTEST, STRIKE, RIOT
• COMBAT -- AIRSTRIKE, MISSILESTRIKE, DRONESTRIKE, BOMBING, ARTILLERY, GROUNDCOMBAT, INVASION, NAVAL, IED, AMBUSH
• TERRORISM -- BOMBING, SUICIDE_BOMBING, IED, VEHICLE_RAMMING, MASS_SHOOTING, KNIFE_ATTACK, HOSTAGE, ASSASSINATION, ARSON, OTHER
• ACTIVESHOOTER -- MASS_SHOOTING, DRIVEBY, STANDOFF, SNIPER, SHOOTING, OTHER
• INCIDENT -- ROAD_CLOSURE, BRIDGE, RAIL, PIPELINE, POWER, INDUSTRIAL, WATER, OTHER

Note there is no PORT or AIRPORT sub-type. To find disruptions at ports and airports, use the supply_chain parameter -- the affected infrastructure is carried by SupplyChainInfrastructure, not by the sub-type.

Example: RAIL,ROAD_CLOSURE

severitystringOptional

Filter by severity level. Comma-separated list for multiple values. OSINT hazards represent observed events and are published as WARNING.

Example: WARNING

categorystringOptional

Filter by hazard category. Comma-separated list for multiple values. OSINT hazards are published as EVENT.

Example: EVENT

countrystringOptional

Filter by country. Comma-separated list for multiple values. This endpoint accepts three interchangeable forms, selected by the length of the value:

• 2 characters -- exact match on the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code (e.g. US).
• 3 characters -- exact match on the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code (e.g. USA).
• 4 or more characters -- substring match against the full country name, so United States matches United States of America.

This is more permissive than the country parameter on /active-hazards-query, which requires the full country name.

Example: US,JPN,United States

started_atstringOptional

Filter hazards started at or after this timestamp (format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS).

Example: 2026-07-01 00:00:00

ended_atstringOptional

Filter hazards ended at or before this timestamp (format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS).

Example: 2026-07-31 23:59:59

created_atstringOptional

Filter by creation timestamp (format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS).

updated_atstringOptional

Filter by last-update timestamp (format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS).

sincestringOptional

Return only hazards whose updatedAt is at or after this timestamp. Intended as a watermark for incremental polling: store the highest updatedAt you have seen and pass it back on the next request (format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS).

Example: 2026-07-13 06:00:00

latitudestringOptional

Filter by latitude range as min,max.

Example: -10.0,10.0

longitudestringOptional

Filter by longitude range as min,max.

Example: 100.0,150.0

bboxstringOptional

Filter to hazards whose centroid falls inside a bounding box, given as minLon,minLat,maxLon,maxLat (WGS84).

Example: 100.0,-10.0,150.0,10.0

min_precisionstringOptional

Filter on the geographic precision of the hazard's location (n2h.location_level). One of point, city, county, corridor, river_corridor, chokepoint, or region -- point is the most precise and region the least. Hazards are never published at country-level precision or coarser.

Example: city

supply_chainbooleanOptional

When true, return only hazards that disrupt transport or shipping infrastructure (incident.properties.SupplyChainImpact), such as port strikes, canal closures, rail suspensions, and airport shutdowns.

Example: true

uuidstringOptional

Filter by hazard UUID(s). Comma-separated list for multiple values.

Responses

302

Redirect to a pre-signed S3 URL. Follow the Location header to retrieve gzipped NDJSON hazard data. Each line in the decompressed body is a JSON object matching the OsintHazard schema. The pre-signed URL expires after 5 minutes.

application/x-ndjson

400

Query validation failed.

application/json

403

Forbidden -- the token is invalid or expired, or the credentials do not carry the role required for OSINT hazards. If your token works against other endpoints, contact your sales contact or [e-mail] to have the required role added.

text/plain

get/osint-hazards-query

GET /osint-hazards-query HTTP/1.1
Host: api-v2.disasteraware.com
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SECRET_TOKEN
Accept: */*

{
  "name": [
    {
      "locale": "en",
      "value": "Russian Missile and Drone Strike on Power Grid — Ukraine"
    }
  ],
  "description": [
    {
      "locale": "en",
      "value": "A Combat incident was reported in Podilskyi district, Ukraine on 2026-07-03.\nPreliminary reports indicate 10 total victims comprised of 10 fatalities.\n\nEvent Summary*:\n• Combat has been reported in Podilskyi district, Ukraine.\n• Affected areas include: Podilskyi district, Ukraine.\n\nBased on 247 article(s) from: Ukrainska Pravda English, South China Morning Post, ...\n"
    }
  ],
  "severity": "WARNING",
  "category": "EVENT",
  "type": "COMBAT",
  "hazard_sub_type": "MISSILESTRIKE",
  "uuid": "a6a4b817-8e6f-4f27-8974-c755db09f918",
  "comment": "text",
  "createdAt": 1783392752,
  "updatedAt": 1783981527,
  "startedAt": 1783036800,
  "endedAt": 1783641600,
  "latitude": 50.4895076,
  "longitude": 30.4287653,
  "version": 2,
  "creator": "News2Hazards (Automated)",
  "relatedHazards": [
    {}
  ],
  "incident": {
    "uuid": "text",
    "type": "text",
    "sourceId": "text",
    "sourceRecordId": "text",
    "properties": {}
  },
  "source": {
    "id": "text",
    "name": "text",
    "longName": "text",
    "description": "text"
  },
  "locationDetails": {},
  "n2h": {
    "hazard_id": "COMBAT-UKR-KYIV-2026-07",
    "hazard_sub_type": "MISSILESTRIKE",
    "summary": "text",
    "is_ongoing": true,
    "start_date_iso": "2026-07-03",
    "end_date_iso": "text",
    "location_level": "point",
    "location_specific": "Podilskyi district",
    "country": "text",
    "article_count": 247,
    "quantitative": {
      "ANY_ADDITIONAL_PROPERTY": "anything"
    },
    "sources": [
      {
        "name": "Ukrainska Pravda English",
        "title": "text",
        "url": "https://example.com",
        "type": "rss",
        "published_at": "text",
        "body": "text"
      }
    ],
    "extra": {}
  },
  "alertGeometry": {
    "type": "FeatureCollection",
    "features": [
      {}
    ]
  },
  "features": {
    "type": "FeatureCollection",
    "features": [
      {}
    ]
  },
  "exposureAreas": {},
  "exposureAssessment": {}
}

See Authorizing Requests page to get your accessToken.

This endpoint requires a specific role on your credentials. It is not enabled by default, and credentials that work against the other hazard endpoints will not necessarily work here.

If your token is valid elsewhere but this endpoint returns 403 Forbidden, your credentials are missing the required role. Contact your sales contact or [e-mail] to have it added.

Response Format

The API returns a 302 redirect to a pre-signed S3 URL. Follow the Location header, then decompress the body: the object is gzipped NDJSON (newline-delimited JSON), with one complete hazard object per line.

This is the same pattern used by Requesting Active Hazards, and it applies to both filtered and unfiltered requests. The pre-signed URL expires after 5 minutes.

Feed Membership and Expiry

This endpoint returns active hazards, so it is worth being precise about how long a hazard stays in the feed and how that relates to the event actually being over. These are three different things, and they are reported by three different fields.

How long a hazard stays in the feed depends on whether its end has been determined:

• The end is known. The hazard leaves the feed at endedAt plus a short linger period — 24 hours for the discrete-event types (TERRORISM, ACTIVESHOOTER, COMBAT, INCIDENT), which are usually only reported after they have concluded, and 6 hours for CIVILUNREST and FLOOD. Continued news coverage of an event that has already concluded does not extend its stay in the feed.

• The end is not known. The hazard remains until a period passes with no new information about it: 96 hours for most types, 168 hours for COMBAT (active fronts can go quiet for days without being over), and 24 hours for ACTIVESHOOTER.

endedAt is always the detected end of the event, never the expiry time. The linger period above is not added to it. Because a hazard can therefore appear in the active feed with an endedAt already in the past, decide relevance from endedAt rather than from the hazard's presence in the response.

The related fields, and what each one actually tells you:

Field	Question it answers
endedAt	When did the event end?
n2h.is_ongoing	Is the real-world event still unfolding? Independent of feed membership.
incident.properties.status	The record's lifecycle state. ACTIVE on every record returned by this endpoint.

Hazard Types

OSINT hazards are published under six types.

Type	Description
CIVILUNREST	Protests, strikes, riots, and demonstrations.
FLOOD	Flood events reported in open sources.
COMBAT	Military strikes and operations against military or state targets.
TERRORISM	Attacks on civilian targets by non-state actors.
ACTIVESHOOTER	Active-shooter incidents.
INCIDENT	Infrastructure and transport disruptions — roads, rail, power, water, industrial.

Every OSINT hazard represents an observed event, so records are published with a severity of WARNING and a category of EVENT. The severity and category query parameters are accepted for consistency with /active-hazards-query, but they are not useful filters on this endpoint.

Sub-types

The hazard_sub_type field further classifies the hazard, and can be filtered with the sub_type query parameter. It is guaranteed non-empty for every type except FLOOD, which has no sub-type system and is always an empty string.

Each type defines a default sub-type, shown in bold below, which is used when the reporting does not identify anything more specific.

Type	Sub-type values (default in bold)
CIVILUNREST	PROTEST, STRIKE, RIOT
FLOOD	— (always "")
COMBAT	AIRSTRIKE, MISSILESTRIKE, DRONESTRIKE, BOMBING, ARTILLERY, GROUNDCOMBAT, INVASION, NAVAL, IED, AMBUSH
TERRORISM	BOMBING, SUICIDE_BOMBING, IED, VEHICLE_RAMMING, MASS_SHOOTING, KNIFE_ATTACK, HOSTAGE, ASSASSINATION, ARSON, OTHER
ACTIVESHOOTER	MASS_SHOOTING, DRIVEBY, STANDOFF, SNIPER, SHOOTING, OTHER
INCIDENT	ROAD_CLOSURE, BRIDGE, RAIL, PIPELINE, POWER, INDUSTRIAL, WATER, OTHER

There is no PORT or AIRPORT sub-type. A strike that shuts a port or an airport is typed by the event — a dockworkers' strike is CIVILUNREST / STRIKE, not an INCIDENT / PORT. The affected infrastructure is carried by the supply-chain fields instead.

To find port and airport disruptions, filter with supply_chain=true and read SupplyChainInfrastructure — not sub_type.

Query Parameters

The endpoint accepts the same parameters as /active-hazards-query — with the exception of comment, which is not supported — plus several parameters specific to OSINT hazards. All parameters are optional; when none are supplied, the full set of active OSINT hazards is returned.

Inherited from /active-hazards-query: name, type, severity, category, country, started_at, ended_at, created_at, updated_at, latitude, longitude, and uuid. The four timestamp parameters take the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS; latitude and longitude take a min,max range.

Some of these behave differently here: country is considerably more permissive (covered below), while severity and category are constant across every OSINT hazard and so make poor filters.

The country parameter

The country parameter on this endpoint is more flexible than its counterpart on /active-hazards-query. It accepts three interchangeable forms, and the form is selected by the length of the value you supply:

Value length	Matching behaviour	Example
2 characters	Exact match on the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code.	US
3 characters	Exact match on the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code.	USA
4 or more characters	Substring match against the full country name.	United States matches United States of America

Because the 4-or-more case is a substring match, you do not have to supply the country's full canonical name. United States will match United States of America, and Korea will match both Korean entries — so use a longer, more specific string when you need to disambiguate. Comma-separated lists are supported, and the forms can be mixed: country=US,JPN,United Kingdom.

This is a deliberate difference from Requesting Active Hazards, where the country parameter requires the full country name and does not accept ISO codes.

OSINT-specific parameters

Parameter	Description
sub_type	Filter by hazard_sub_type. Pairs naturally with type. See Sub-types for the valid values of each type. Comma-separated list for multiple values. Filtering FLOOD by sub_type returns nothing, as floods carry no sub-type.
since	Return only hazards whose updatedAt is at or after this timestamp. Intended as a watermark for incremental polling: store the highest updatedAt you have seen and pass it back on the next request.
bbox	Filter to hazards whose centroid falls inside a bounding box, given as minLon,minLat,maxLon,maxLat (WGS84).
min_precision	Filter on the geographic precision of the resolved location (n2h.location_level). One of point, city, county, corridor, river_corridor, chokepoint, or region — point is the most precise and region the least.
supply_chain	When true, return only hazards that disrupt transport or shipping infrastructure — port strikes, canal closures, rail suspensions, airport shutdowns.

Response Fields

Each hazard object follows the same shape as an active hazard, with the additions and exceptions noted below.

Field	Type	Description
uuid	String	A unique universal identifier for the hazard. Stable across updates, so it can be used to correlate successive versions of the same event.
name	Array	An array of objects, each defining the hazard name in a specific locale formatted according to RFC 5646 (e.g., "en" for US English). Each object contains locale and value keys.
description	Array	An array of objects providing localized descriptions of the hazard, including a summary of the event and the publications it was drawn from. Each object contains locale (RFC 5646 format) and value keys.
severity	String	Always WARNING for OSINT hazards. See Requesting Hazard Severities for the complete reference.
category	String	Always EVENT for OSINT hazards. See Requesting Hazard Categories for the complete reference.
type	String	The hazard type: CIVILUNREST, FLOOD, COMBAT, TERRORISM, ACTIVESHOOTER, or INCIDENT.
hazard_sub_type	String	Sub-classification of the hazard type (e.g., MISSILESTRIKE for a COMBAT hazard, RAIL for an INCIDENT hazard). Guaranteed non-empty for every type except FLOOD, which is always an empty string. See Sub-types.
comment	String/Null	Optional comment. Currently not populated; reserved for future use.
createdAt	Integer	Unix timestamp (seconds since epoch) indicating when the hazard object was first logged in the system.
startedAt	Integer	Unix timestamp recording when the underlying event began.
updatedAt	Integer	Unix timestamp capturing the last time the hazard object was updated. As additional reporting arrives, an event's casualty counts, geometry, and summary may all be revised. Use this field with the since parameter for incremental polling.
endedAt	Integer	Unix timestamp of the detected end of the event. Never padded — a hazard lingers in the feed briefly after this time, but the value always reports when the event actually concluded. See Feed Membership and Expiry.
latitude	Float	Geographic latitude of the event (WGS84 projection).
longitude	Float	Geographic longitude of the event (WGS84 projection).
version	Integer	Version counter, incremented each time the hazard object is modified.
creator	String	The system that produced the record.
relatedHazards	Array	A placeholder for future use. Currently returns an empty array.
incident	Object	Details of the detected event. Contains uuid, sourceRecordId, sourceId, type, and properties — a dictionary of flat, query-friendly attributes describing the event. See Incident Object below.
source	Object	Identifies the detection pipeline that produced the hazard, rather than a reporting agency. The publications an individual hazard was drawn from are listed in n2h.sources.
locationDetails	Object	The administrative hierarchy resolved from the event's coordinates: country, country_code (ISO-2), country_code_3 (ISO-3), state_province, state_code, county, continent, subregion, and location_type.
n2h	Object	OSINT-specific detail — contributing articles, event-specific counters, and location precision. Present only on OSINT hazards. See The n2h Object below.
alertGeometry	Object	A GeoJSON FeatureCollection delineating an area for notification purposes, intended to intersect with user areas of interest for early warning. Intentionally larger than the actual impact area.
features	Object	A GeoJSON FeatureCollection containing an INCIDENT point at the event location and a SMART_ALERT polygon defining the alert boundary.
exposureAreas	Null	Not computed for OSINT hazards. Always null.
exposureAssessment	Null	Not computed for OSINT hazards. Always null.

Exposure data is not available on this endpoint. exposureAreas and exposureAssessment are always null for OSINT hazards. The population and infrastructure exposure modelling described in Requesting Active Hazards applies to hazards from authoritative agency sources only.

Field Details

Incident Object

The incident.properties object holds a flat set of attributes describing the detected event. Because it is flat and consistently named, it is the most convenient place to read event detail from.

Fields present on every OSINT hazard:

• Country_Name — the full country name in canonical form (e.g., United States of America)

• Country_Code — ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (e.g., US)

• Country_Code_3 — ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code (e.g., USA)

• Province_District_Town — the most specific place name resolved for the event

• Incident_Type — human-readable event type (e.g., Civil Unrest, Combat)

• Incident_Severity — severity classification: H (high), M (medium), L (low)

• Scope_of_Incident — geographic scope (e.g., Local, Regional)

• Event_Summary — a short summary of the event

• Total_Fatalities / Total_Wounded — casualty rollup

• Civilian_Fatalities / Civilian_Wounded, Police_Military_Fatalities / Police_Military_Wounded, Terrorist_Insurgent_Fatalities / Terrorist_Insurgent_Wounded — casualty breakdown by affected group

• casualties — a JSON string with the killed/injured breakdown

• status — lifecycle state of the record

• sourceName / Source — the publication the record was first raised from

• rawMessage — the text of the source article

• bufferSize — buffer distance in metres used to build the alert geometry

The country location fields describe where the event happened, not who reported it. They are derived from the event's resolved coordinates, so a strike in Ukraine reported by a newspaper in Hong Kong carries Country_Code: "UA".

Additional fields appear depending on the hazard type — for example Aggressor, Target, and Weapons_Used on COMBAT hazards, or Participants and Arrests on CIVILUNREST hazards. These are documented on the individual sample pages.

Supply-Chain Fields

When an event physically disrupts the movement of goods, people, or energy through critical infrastructure, incident.properties carries an additional set of supply-chain fields. These are the fields behind the supply_chain query parameter, and they are how you find port, airport, canal, and chokepoint disruptions — not the sub-type, which describes the event rather than the infrastructure.

Each field draws from a controlled vocabulary:

Field	Values
SupplyChainImpact	true. The field is only ever true — it is absent from hazards that do not disrupt supply chains, rather than being set to false.
SupplyChainInfrastructure	A comma-joined subset of PORT, AIRPORT, RAIL, HIGHWAY, CANAL, STRAIT, BORDER, OIL_TERMINAL, PIPELINE, POWER_GRID.
SupplyChainDisruptionType	One of STRIKE, CLOSURE, DELAYS, DAMAGE, BLOCKADE, SEIZURE.
NamedChokepoint	One of HORMUZ, SUEZ, BAB_EL_MANDEB, MALACCA, PANAMA, BOSPHORUS, DARDANELLES, TAIWAN_STRAIT, ENGLISH_CHANNEL, KERCH_STRAIT.

Two behaviours are worth knowing when you consume these fields:

• Impact is sticky. Once a hazard is marked as supply-chain impacting, later reporting never clears it. A thin follow-up article that does not mention the disruption will not cause the flags to disappear.

• A named chokepoint changes the geometry. When NamedChokepoint is set, the hazard's geometry is snapped to that waterway's polygon rather than being a buffer around a point. Expect alertGeometry to follow the shape of the strait or canal.

Because SupplyChainImpact is absent rather than false when a hazard has no supply-chain dimension, test for the field's presence — do not test it for equality with false.

The n2h Object

The n2h object carries the detail specific to open-source detection. It is an extension to the core hazard shape and appears only on OSINT hazards.

Field	Type	Description
hazard_id	String	A human-readable identifier for the event (e.g., COMBAT-UKR-KYIV-2026-07).
hazard_sub_type	String	Sub-classification of the hazard type. Mirrors the top-level field.
summary	String	A short summary of the event, synthesised from the contributing articles.
is_ongoing	Boolean	Whether the underlying real-world event is still unfolding. This is distinct from whether the record is still in the active feed — a hazard can remain active after the event itself has concluded.
start_date_iso	String	The date the event began (ISO 8601 date).
end_date_iso	String/Null	The date the event concluded, or null if it is still ongoing.
location_level	String	The geographic precision of the resolved location. One of point, city, county, corridor, river_corridor, chokepoint, or region — point is the most precise and region the least. Hazards are never published at country-level precision or coarser. This is the field behind the min_precision query parameter.
location_specific	String	The most specific place name resolved for the event.
country	String	The country the event occurred in.
article_count	Integer	The number of articles that contributed to this hazard. A higher count indicates the event was more widely reported and therefore more strongly corroborated.
quantitative	Object	Counters extracted from the reporting. The keys vary by hazard type — participants and arrests for civil unrest, missiles_fired and drones_intercepted for combat, flood_depth_ft and homes_flooded for flood. Treat this as an open map and read only the keys you need; do not assume a fixed set.
sources	Array	The contributing articles. Each entry carries the publisher name, article title, url, feed type, published_at, and a body extract. Well-corroborated events can carry hundreds of entries.
extra	Object	Internal pipeline diagnostics. Reserved for internal use — the contents are not part of the public contract and may change without notice.

n2h.sources is the audit trail for the hazard. Every OSINT hazard is derived from published reporting, and this array links back to the articles it was built from, so any record can be traced to its origin.

Features

OSINT hazards include a features FeatureCollection with two featureType values:

• INCIDENT — a point geometry at the event location, carrying event and casualty detail.

• SMART_ALERT — the alert boundary polygon.

Hazard Samples

A full sample response is provided for each of the six OSINT hazard types:

• Civil Unrest Sample

• Flood Sample

• Combat Sample

• Terrorism Sample

• Active Shooter Sample

• Incident Sample