The Responsible AI for DRM report highlights the ethics and responsibility concerns in AI- and ML-supported projects, such as algorithmic bias, transparency and privacy issues, and reduced roles for local participation and expert judgment.
Pillars
Open Data Day event: Understanding Disaster Risk with Open Data
On Saturday, March 6, join GFDRR Labs and OpenDRI for an Open Data Day webinar on the value of open data for understanding disaster risk.
Tout le monde a un rôle à jouer : comment les différents acteurs contribuent à accroître la résilience urbaine au Cameroun
Au Cameroun, les contributions d’un large éventail d’acteurs ont permis d’accroître la disponibilité des données et de produire un Atlas des risques.
Everybody has a role: How stakeholders are contributing to increase urban resilience in Cameroon
The Ngaoundéré City Council (NCC) is using a stakeholder-driven Risk Atlas to inform urban management and planning.
GFDRR supports data for resilience at Open Data Day 2021
GFDRR supports Open Data Day mini-grants to provide funding for local events showcasing open data in their communities.
Quand résilience des villes rime avec épanouissement professionnel des jeunes
Jusque-là, les données urbanistiques étaient rares, souvent obsolètes et difficilement accessibles. Lorsque les étudiants congolais ont appris que le projet Villes ouvertes mobilisait les ressources locales pour pallier cette pénurie de données, en promouvant ainsi la production d’informations gratuites, accessibles et collaboratives, ils y ont vu une opportunité. Ces jeunes ont réalisé qu’ils pouvaient collecter des données inaccessibles autrement, les partager librement et les analyser afin d’améliorer la situation de leurs quartiers, et se sont investis avec ferveur et fierté dans ce défi.
Making cities resilient helps youth thrive professionally: A tale of resilience from Congo
City data was scarce, often obsolete, and hardly accessible. So, when Open Cities made efforts to tap into local resources and fill the data gap—introducing opportunities for free, accessible, and collaborative data—Congolese students jumped on the chance.
Quand les communautés africaines s’emparent du numérique pour cartographier leurs villes
Grâce au projet Open Cities Africa, les autorités municipales travaillent avec des universités locales, des ONG et des membres des communautés pour recueillir des données géographiques précises afin de bâtir un avenir plus résilient.
African communities are closing the digital map gap for cities
Sub-Saharan Africa’s urban areas are among the world’s least mapped and most vulnerable. Through the Open Cities Africa program, municipal governments work with local universities, NGOs, and community members to collect detailed geographic data for a more resilient future.
Open Cities Africa Final Report
The Open Cities Africa final report documents the successes, challenges, and lessons learned under the ADRF funded program
Comment combler l’écart numérique entre les sexes : l’exemple d’Open Cities Africa
Que se passe-t-il quand les cartes sont créées de manière disproportionnée par des hommes ? Les caractéristiques qui sont importantes pour les femmes, telles que les zones de marché, les espaces sûrs, comme les abris, ou les services spécifiques aux femmes, peuvent ne pas figurer sur les cartes.
How to Close the Digital Gender Gap: Lessons from Open Cities Africa
What happens when maps are disproportionately created by men? Features that are important to women such as market areas, safe spaces like shelters, or gender-specific services may not be included on the map.
HOT Supporting the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development Project to Protect Communities from Flooding
Flooding has plagued the Ghanaian capital of Accra for years, so HOT worked with Mobile Web Ghana and OpenStreetMap Ghana to develop data on local buildings, drainage, and infrastructure that communities and municipal authorities could use to make vulnerable neighborhoods more resilient.
When community mapping meets artificial intelligence
Artificial Intelligence can help with geospatial data collection — and those data can save lives. But AI can also have unintended consequences for marginalized groups. That’s where Responsible AI comes in.
Open Cities AI Challenge: Segmenting Buildings for Disaster Resilience
The Open Cities AI Challenge, put on by GFDRR with Azavea and DrivenData, recently concluded with over 1,100 participants, 2,100 submissions and $15,000 in total prizes awarded. Along two competition tracks, the Challenge produced global public goods — open-source data, code, research, and know-how — that will support mapping efforts for disaster resilience. This includes: Increasing… Read more »
Perspectives on Responsible AI for Disaster Risk Management
Machine learning (ML) can improve data applications in disaster risk management, especially when coupled with computer vision and geospatial technologies, by providing more accurate, faster, or lower-cost approaches to assessing risk. At the same time, we urgently need to develop a better understanding of the potential for negative or unintended consequences of their use. The… Read more »
The Open Cities AI Challenge
Segment buildings in African cities from aerial imagery and advance Responsible AI ideas for disaster risk management
Sustainability in OpenStreetMap
The white paper explores the many facets of OpenStreetMap (OSM) in development and the challenges of striving for “sustainability” in the wider mapping ecosystem – the paper also examines the factors that influence long term success of work involving OSM in a development context.
Managing the Risks of Unmanned Aircraft Operations in Development Projects
From an origin in military and security applications, the use of unmanned aircraft (UA) technology is currently transforming commercial and humanitarian activity. Its evolution started many decades ago, but was limited by the technology of the time; in recent years, advances in this area have facilitated an increasingly rapid expansion of UA technology that has started to move into a variety of sectors. As the societal benefits of UA become clearer, organisations across the commercial and government spectrum seek to exploit the technology to improve their business models and offer a safer, cleaner, and more cost-effective alternative to traditional data-capture methods.
How participatory mapping can make Brazzaville’s poor neighborhoods safer
In Congo, over 300 people—half of them women— received trainings on community planning and leadership change.
Capturing an archipelago: Open Cities Zanzibar
Open Cities Zanzibar has generated and visualized datasets critical to disaster risk management, building the capacity of government staff, university students, and communities in the process.
Uganda Open Mapping for Resilience Completes Ggaba Parish Pilot
The Uganda Open Mapping for Resilience project team have completed fieldwork in Ggaba Parish, gathering important information for the lakeside communities to highlight and analyze disaster risk. This follows up on the capacity development on open mapping for resilience methodology across Ugandan authorities. This OpenDRI initiative has seen residents and GIS professionals collaborating shoulder to… Read more »
À Saint-Louis, Sénégal, open source et cartographie libre pour s’adapter à la montée des eaux
Les données sont nécessaires pour la prise de décision. Elles sont utiles si elles sont à jour, précises et exhaustives, encore faut-il qu’elles soient accessibles et partagées !
Kinshasa en lutte contre les inondations grâce aux données libres d’accès
La métropole centrafricaine de Kinshasa (RDC), abrite aujourd’hui plus de 12 millions d’habitants et s’étend sur des vastes zones de faible altitude ou à flanc de collines souvent soumises à l’érosion et touchées par les inondations.
Balkans and Risk: The State of Open Data for DRM
Critical DRM data gaps remain for Balkans countries. Case studies from government and journalism are an opportunity to explore initiatives and projects addressing these gaps.
A Brazzaville, la population se met en marche pour cartographier les risques
A Brazzaville, Republique du Congo, l’urbanisation s’est faite depuis les années 60 sans respecter un véritable plan et au gré des opportunités foncières. En conséquence aujourd’hui, les quartiers précaires sont aussi les plus exposés aux aléas climatiques.
GFDRR invites you to celebrate International Open Data Day
Taking place on Saturday March 2nd is the 9th annual International Open Data Day, a community led event celebrating and promoting free access to information around the world. Are you running or participating in an Open Data Day event? GFDRR is offering you tools and resources to focus on Open Data for Resilience to help… Read more »
À Antananarivo, la cartographie libre comme outil de gestion collective des Fokontany
Open Cities vise à répondre à ce défaut d’information en appuyant les communautés locales – les Fokontany – à mieux collecter, partager et utiliser les données de leur territoire.
Measuring the state of global open data for disasters and climate change adaptation
By Pierre Chrzanowski, Open Data Specialist at OpenDRI. Co-author: Grace Doherty, Geospatial Consultant at OpenDRI. A few months ago, OpenDRI released the beta version of the OpenDRI Index, a new tool to track and measure the availability of disaster risk data at country level. Today, we are pleased to publish the Global Datasets page, a preliminary list of worldwide or… Read more »
Leveraging OpenStreetMap to improve disaster risk management in the Seychelles
Open Cities Africa Seychelles is targeting the coastal areas of the archipelago’s three main inner islands to gather information on the risk of urban and coastal flooding.
Machine Learning for Disaster Risk Management
This guidance note explains how the World Bank Group uses machine learning algorithms to collect better data, make more informed decisions, and, ultimately, save lives.
Au Cameroun, la cartographie libre pour aider Ngaoundéré à s’adapter au changement climatique
L’urbanisation de Ngaoundéré a eu lieu, en grande partie de façon spontanée, entraînant une occupation croissante de nombreuses zones humides exposées aux inondations chaque année et des versants des montagnes aux risques d’éboulement de blocs rocheux sans aménagements préalables.
My Experience as a Student Mapper for Open Cities Accra
Anyone can contribute to OpenStreetMap. But few gain the chance to see the other side of the collaborative mapping process: when field mappers take to the streets.
Planning An Open Cities Mapping Project
This Open Cities guide documents lessons learned from work in South Asia, providing an overview of the design and implementation of a community mapping program. To keep this guide up-to-date and truly open source, the online version of the document is hosted on GitHub welcoming comments and contributions.
Tackling Coastal Flooding in Monrovia Slums: Understanding through partnerships, one community at a time
In the informal settlements of Liberia’s largest city, Open Cities Africa is introducing a dynamic open data workflow to support urban planning and protect residents from flood.
The Rise of Local Mapping Communities
In the past few years, there has been a meteoric rise of locally organized OpenStreetMap communities in developing countries working to improve the map in service of sustainable development activities.
City planning and community mapping: Gathering people and data in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo
In Pointe Noire, community mapping is used by Open Cities Africa to collect data, raise awareness and put people at the centre of city planning and infrastructure projects.
JOIN US! World Bank Mapathon for Development and Disaster Risk Reduction
OpenDRI and GFDRR invite you to participate in our mapping event in the World Bank Headquarters on Wednesday, November 14 from 11:00 am – 2:00 pm. This Mapathon seeks to bring attention to the numerous benefits of using geospatial data in providing solutions to development and disaster risk reduction (DRR) initiatives. Organized as part of… Read more »
Checklist: 10 guiding principles for effective use of risk data
OpenDRI has developed 10 principles that can be applied throughout a project’s life cycle to help ensure that risk data is used effectively for decision-making.
Building web maps in Zanzibar
Developers and geospatial professionals from across Africa gathered in Zanzibar for a two-day workshop on using Mapbox tools with open imagery, highlighting what’s spurring geospatial innovation across the continent.
Uganda Bureau of Statistics engages in open mapping for resilience with the OpenStreetMap community
A milestone in the evolution of open data collaboration: Uganda Bureau of Statistics have teamed up with MapUganda to become part of the digital revolution.
Tool Design for Urban Resilience at the Open Cities Africa Second Regional Meeting
Consortia of local government and innovation teams from 11 cities across the African continent came to Tanzania to learn from each other and attend a packed 7 days of open source software and urban governance conferences in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar.
How can Bangladesh increase its resilience to disasters through data sharing?
Schools across Bangladesh are highly vulnerable to floods, cyclones, and earthquakes. How can the country mitigate and respond to the risks of these natural hazards? By using the GeoDASH platform – a geospatial data sharing platform – the Directorate of Primary Education of Bangladesh has assessed 35,000 schools with respect to the type of infrastructure, water… Read more »
Understanding Niamey’s flood risk through open source mapping, drones, and modeling
For thousands of years, the Niger River has been the lifeblood for not only Niger, but also its neighboring countries in the Niger River Basin. Yet, even as many Nigeriens depend on the mighty waterway for food, water, and livelihoods, the Niger River also poses a severe flood risk to the West African country during… Read more »
Comprendre les risques d’inondation à Niamey grâce à la cartographie open source, aux drones et à la modélisation
Pendant des millénaires, le fleuve Niger a été le poumon socioéconomique du Niger, mais aussi des pays voisins du bassin du Niger. Pourtant, même si cette imposante voie navigable permet à de nombreux Nigériens de se nourrir, s’approvisionner en eau, et gagner leur vie, elle présente également un grave risque d’inondation en Afrique de l’Ouest… Read more »
One Challenge, Many Challenges: Machine Learning for Mapping
OpenDRI is in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania this week for the annual conference of Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G 2018). With over 1000 expected attendees, this large gathering of geospatial enthusiasts is a prime opportunity to learn and share about the latest technology in mapping. Part of the pre-conference program, Tuesday morning… Read more »
Open Cities Africa Kickoff 2018
The Open Cities Africa Kickoff hosted the largest gathering of teams in Open Cities history this summer in Kampala, Uganda. For a week in June, eleven Open Cities project teams represented by 55 delegates convened as a cohort to receive training in innovative, open, and participatory data collection and mapping processes to support management of… Read more »
Open Cities Africa
Creating open spatial data on the built and natural environment, developing tools to assist key stakeholders to utilize risk information, and supporting local capacity-building necessary for implementing urban resilience interventions.
The Open Data for Resilience Index (beta version): tracking data availability at the country level for disaster risk management
The OpenDRI Index aims to advance the state of open data for disaster and climate risk management around the world, providing a better picture of what is available as open data, but also identifying essential data that is not yet available.
Launch of the Design for Impact Framework: Integrating Open Data and Risk Communication for Decision-Making
The framework and publication provide a new organizational resource for project designers working to ensure risk data and information is developed, maintained, and communicated in ways that tangibly build resilience to natural hazards and the impacts of climate change.
OpenDRI at UR2018
The OpenDRI team is headed to the 2018 Understanding Risk Forum in Mexico City! We’re looking forward to seeing friends and colleagues in the community, and the schedule is overflowing with exciting sessions on open risk data, civic technology, citizen science, and risk communication.
Design for Impact: Integrating Open Data and Risk Communication for Decision-Making
A new resource for project designers working with risk data and information. It aims to provide project designers with a framework to guide them in developing projects that have a strong link between development of open risk data and real world decision-making.
Identifying success factors in crowdsourced geographic information use in government
The aim of this updated report is to review governmental projects that incorporate VGI and provide information that can be used to support its wider adoption of VGI. To this end, the report compiles and summarises lessons learned and successful models from government projects in different sectors and at different levels.
Identifying success factors in crowdsourced geographic information use in government
The adoption of crowdsourced geographic data, or volunteered geographic information (VGI), is growing within government. VGI is crowdsourced geographic information provided by a wide range of participants with varying levels of education, knowledge and skills.
A Drone’s Eye View: UAV applications for a resilient Seychelles
In the Seychelles, life straddles the coastline. The 94,000 residents depend upon the sea for sustenance. The country relies on a mere 400 hectares of agricultural land, increasingly at risk of climate-related events. Inspired by the experience of Zanzibar, a neighboring island state with similar challenges, the Seychelles is now embracing drones as a tool to collect low-cost, highly accurate aerial imagery for resilient development.
RiskInfo – The new platform for Sri Lanka’s open geospatial data
RiskInfo was born out of efforts by the Disaster Management Centre and GFDRR to consolidate data for disaster risk management from various partners. It has served as a foundation for building a community of practice around open geospatial data in Sri Lanka.
How Afghanistan uses GeoNode to build resilience
Very little information on hazards and risk was available in Afghanistan a few years ago. A team set out to produce information essential to disaster risk management. They developed innovations on top of a standard GeoNode for visualization & cost-benefit analysis, enabling Afghanistan’s planning to incorporate disaster considerations.
‘Malawi Mappers’ Mobilize to Improve Open Geospatial Data
Author: Christine Mhone is the GIS Projects Leader at mHub, Malawi’s first technology and innovation hub. She was nominated by mHub to represent Malawi at the first State of the Map Africa conference in Kampala, Uganda in 2017. Christine has continued to lead the Malawi Mappers community in adding data to OpenStreetMap. Christine can be… Read more »
Demystifying Satellite Assets for Post-Disaster Situation Awareness
This is a living document that aims to demystify the numerous satellite assets available to the emergency response community. It is published openly on Google Docs, accepting comments, corrections, and criticisms from interested readers.
Open Mapping for the SDGs: A practical guide to launching and growing open mapping initiatives
This guide, drawing from the Open Cities guide, provides resources to help national bureaus of statistics, national mapping agencies, line ministries, and non-government partners foster the growth of participatory mapping in their countries and develop national roadmaps.
Niger
The PGRC-DU is developing state-of-the-art tools to identify flooding hot-spots and evaluate the added value of flood mitigation measures. These tools will lead to better knowledge of flood-exposed assets and people in the city of Niamey.
Addressing Flood Vulnerability in Niamey, Niger, West Africa
Authors: Dr. Ousmane Seidou is an associate professor of water resources engineering at the University of Ottawa, and an adjunct professor at the United Nations University, Centre for Water, Environmental and Health (UNU-INWEH). He is involved in research, teaching and capacity development activities related to water resources management, hydrological risk and adaptation to climate variability… Read more »
InaSAFE and OpenDRI at State of the Map Africa
In July 2017, the InaSAFE team had the opportunity to present another training course to DRR practitioners. The training integrates various disciplines, such as the creation and use of open data sets (in particular OpenStreetMap), fundamental GIS skills (through the use of QGIS) and skills in using InaSAFE. The course was presented in English and French at Makerere University in Kampala and was attended by thirty DRR practitioners from government agencies and universities in Niger, Madagascar, Comoros, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi and Uganda.
“When Women Rise, Mountains Move” – Women in Technology and Mapping
At the first African State of the Map Conference, women spoke about compiling code, making maps and breaking cultural barriers.
High Resolution Digital Surface Models Using Drones for Coastal Communities in São Tomé and Príncipe
To help reduce disaster vulnerability in São Tomé and Príncipe, the OpenDRI team is supporting the Government in coastline exposure projections and drone mapping activities.
OpenDRI & GeoNode: A Case Study for Institutional Investments in Open Source
This report examines the history of the GeoNode software project from its inception, tracing how GFDRR contributed to the project’s success.
Promoting Awareness of OpenStreetMap in Sri Lanka
To date, OpenDRI has engaged effectively with the public sector pushing for adoption of OSM. However, there is still a major gap in engagement with local businesses and tech start-ups that would expand and deepen OSM use and knowledge.
Mahatsangy: the start of a resilient open data movement in Madagascar
The OpenDRI project has catapulted discussions around data sharing in Madagascar, and productively problematized the lack thereof. It has engaged stakeholders to talk about best practices in geospatial data production and has reminded the country of the value of statistical and geospatial data in policy and investment decisions.
Introduction to OpenDRI E-Learning Course
This short, self-paced e-learning course provides an overview of the approach and toolset developed by the Open Data for Resilience Initiative.
Building Mapping Expertise in Vietnam
Last month, during a day-long workshop at Can Tho University’s Dragon Institute, the OpenDRI team introduced OpenStreetMap (OSM) to students and to Can Tho city government officials. The session was kept informal, focusing on mapping familiar terrain: the university campus.
Consulting Opportunity: New Research Project on Innovations in Risk Information Launched at SRA 2016
We’re now looking to bring on board a partner to help us conduct research. We have posted the project on the World Bank’s eConsult website. Further details can be found under selection #1235109.
Mapping the Comoros Archipelago
The objective of the OpenDRI project in the Comoros is twofold: first, fill data gaps by building assets using OpenStreetMap (OSM) tools; and second, develop an online data-sharing platform to centralize and share risk data in the country.
GeoNode Summit 2016
The 2016 GeoNode Summit was the largest gathering to date of developers and users of the popular geospatial data sharing software GeoNode.
What can you do with a high-resolution population map?
Population density is one of the most important statistics for development efforts across many sectors, and since early 2016 the World Bank has been collaborating with Facebook on evaluating a new source of high-resolution population data that sheds light on previously unmapped populations.
InaSAFE Training in Salima, Malawi
To meet the needs of the Government of Malawi, GFDRR asked Kartoza to conduct a three-day training on InaSAFE in Salima. With a total of 14 participants in attendance, there were staff from different government departments including the Department of Disaster Affairs, Surveys department, UNIMA-Polytechnic, Physical planning, and Department of Land Resources.
OpenDRI Partners with JICA on Training for Flood Mapping in Colombia
In October 2016 OpenDRI hosted a day-long event during JICA’s flood mapping workshop for the National Unit of Disaster Risk Management in Colombia. Technical experts attended the workshop to learn about how open data and open source tools can be used for decision making during a natural disaster event.
RASOR project support to flood risk analysis in Malawi: Workshop Debrief
OpenDRI and RASOR are working together to develop multi-hazard risk assessments for Malawi’s lakeshore region. A workshop was held in July 2016 to deliver the consolidated results of flood risk analyses conducted over the past year and to outline the RASOR platform process and procedure.
Drone Applications for Community Mapping: Tanzania Case Study
This case study provides a brief overview of the ongoing collaborative engagements between the World Bank, Tanzanian Government, the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, and Swiss based non-profit organization, Drone Adventures.
The new OpenDRI website is officially launched!
This week, the editors of the World Bank blog entitled “Voices” featured a blog post called Opening up a world of data for resilience: A global effort to help access and use countries’ disaster risk information by the Open Data for Resilience Initiative’s very own Vivien Deparday.
The Global Impact of Data: Key Findings from Detailed Case Studies Around the World
The Global Impact of Data, for which OpenDRI’s very own Vivien Deparday was interviewed, by GovLab seeks to explore what we know little about how open data actually works and what forms of impact it is really having.
Introduction to InaSAFE
Learn more about InaSAFE, a free software that produces realistic natural hazard impact scenarios for better planning, preparedness and response activities.
Sri Lanka OpenDRI team finishes exposure mapping in Gampaha District’s Attanagalu Oya river basin
After almost a year of data collection the OpenDRI Sri Lanka team has finished mapping the exposure to flooding of every building in the Gampaha District’s Attanagalu Oya river basin.
Code for Resilience Problem Statement Workshop
In June of 2016 the OpenDRI Sri Lanka team held a Code for Resilience problem statement workshop at the Disaster Management Center of Sri Lanka with more than 25 representatives from government, media and the private sector in Sri Lanka.
Uganda
In Uganda, the World Bank is supporting the Government to develop improved access to drought risk related information and quicken the decision of scaling up disaster risk financing (DRF) mechanisms.
Understanding Risk and Finance Conference
The Understanding Risk and Finance Conference (URf), held on November 17–20, 2015, at the African Union
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, convened 450 disaster risk management experts and practitioners to discuss and
share knowledge on how to mitigate the socioeconomic, fiscal, financial, and physical impacts of disasters in
African nations.
A Glance at the GeoNode
If you’re looking to know more about GeoNode, take a glance at the OpenDRI team created. It gives a basic overview of the tool and briefly explains how and why the platform can be used.
Zanzibar
The Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar (RGoZ) seeks to address high vulnerability to disaster losses from cyclones, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis with the support of the World Bank Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI) and Southwest Indian Ocean Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (SWIO RAFI).
OpenDRI Policy Note & Principles
This publication describes the approach taken by the OpenDRI team to design and enact impactful and sustainable projects with our partner organizations and communities.
Pacific Islands: Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu
Launched in 2011 PCRAFI is a joint initiative of SOPAC/SPC, World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank with the financial and technical support of more than eight other teams.
Open Data for Resilience Initiative will see you at Understanding Risk 2016!
The OpenDRI team is super excited about UR2016 in Venice! The themes of open data, community participation in risk assessment, and improving risk communications are all hot topics at this event.
Satellites in Global Development
Satellites in Global Development is an exploratory overview of current and upcoming sources of data, processing pipelines and data products. The research was compiled by the World Bank Leadership, Learning, and Innovation (LLI) team.
Participatory Mapping for Historical Flood Inundation Extents
As the neighbourhoods of Ramani Huria have been mapped, it is now possible to start building upon these maps. This can take many forms, but the community is at the heart of how these maps are being used.
Review of Open Source and Open Access Software Packages Available to Quantify Risk from Natural Hazards
This Understanding Risk publication created by the GFDRR Innovation Lab aims to highlight modelling tools’ strengths and also highlights some of the challenges that a user of a modelling tool might face.
Community Mapping Factsheet
The Community Mapping Factsheet is a glimpse into the OpenDRI efforts to include people who are exposed to hazards in the data creation process.
Sharing Data Factsheet
The Sharing Data Factsheet takes a brief look at how OpenDRI works with Open Data Platforms.
GeoNode Deployment Guide
This GeoNode Deployment Guide, developed by the OpenDRI team, presents general guidelines on the steps and requirements to deploy a GeoNode.
How are Ramani Huria maps being used in the wards?
Six Masters students from Columbia University evaluated Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team’s work in Tanzania and that of Dar Ramani Huria, whose efforts allow significant efficiency gains in government planning.
How Do You Start Mapping Unmapped Streets?
Nadia Whitehead of National Public Radio (NPR) highlights the value of thework the World Bank conducts in Tanzania through the Open Data for Resilience Initiative.
Surveying Sri Lanka’s Gampaha District
The Gampaha District is an urban and agricultural district located on the Western coast of Sri Lanka just north of Colombo in the Attanagalu Oya River basin. This area is very prone to flooding with important human, material, and financial damages.
Sri Lanka
The Disaster Management Centre of Sri Lanka (DMC) has been working with OpenDRI to support evidence-based methods to better plan for, mitigate, and respond to natural disasters.
Upcoming Sri Lankan Disaster Management Centre Fellowship and RiskInfo Launch
In partnership with the Open Data for Resilience Initiative, Code for Resilience awards qualified local applicants three month fellowships to work together on code-based projects that can benefit disaster management in Sri Lanka.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan launched disasterrisk.af, an open data sharing platform for DRM in 2017.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is already a heavy user of open-source software tools; hence, their understanding of the benefits of open data in the geospatial context is significant.
Saint Lucia
GeoNode will also be used for a new Land Use Management digital information system in Saint Lucia.
Jamaica
The Open Data for Resilience Initiative supports the Cariska GeoNode for data sharing in Jamaica.
Serbia
OpenDRI works with Serbia on enhancing open data and using data for disaster preparedness.
Indonesia
Leveraging parternships globally, nationally and locally to invest in open tools and open data.
Seychelles
The Seychelles are one of the five Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) member states implementing an Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI) under the South West Indian Ocean Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (SWIO RAFI).
Mauritius
An open data sharing platform is in preparation in Mauritius, data review is currently ongoing.
Madagascar
An open data sharing platform is in preparation in Madagascar, data review is currently ongoing.
Vietnam
Working at the national and city scale to establish stronger systems for data management and sharing.
Bangladesh
Mapping is on going in Bangladesh and open data sharing platform has been created for the country. It is soon to be launched officially.
Pakistan
The Open Data for Resilience Initiative supports the DisasterInfo GeoNode for disaster risk management data sharing and use in Pakistan.
Nepal
The World Bank and GFDRR started working in partnership with the Government of Nepal in 2012. The aim was to better understand seismic risk in order to build resilience in the education and health infrastructure of Kathmandu Valley.
Haiti
The Open Data for Resilience Initiative supports the HaitiData GeoNode for disaster risk management.
Guyana
Guyana’s data sharing GeoNode is supported by the Open Data for Resilience Initiative.
Grenada
OpenDRI supports the development of open data practices in Grenada.
Dominica
A GeoNode deployment for sharing existing data launched in November 2012 and a full OpenDRI platform implementation took place in 2013.
Colombia
The OpenDRI team engaged directly with civil society and other international organizations to better understand Colombia’s challenges and their potential to improve resilience to disasters.
Antigua and Barbuda
OpenDRI supports the GeoNode for Antigua and Barbuda.
Belize
The World Bank has provided technical support to Belize’s GeoNode installation, spatial data management related activities, and data/metadata quality assurance and control.
Bolivia
In Bolivia, OpenDRI applies the concepts of the global open data movement to the challenges of reducing vulnerability to natural hazards and the impacts of climate change.
Kyrgyz Republic
Key stakeholders like the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MoES), have identified the critical need to improve the mechanism for collection, management, and dissemination of disaster risk data in Kyrgyzstan.
Philippines
The Open Data for Resilience Initiative assisted in Typhoon Yolanda relief by supporting a GeoNode specific to the event.
Tanzania
Dar Ramani Huria trains university students and local community members to create highly accurate maps of the most flood-prone areas of the city using OpenStreetMap.
Mozambique
Mozambique’s national disaster management agency, The Instituto Nacional de Gestão das Calamidades (INGC), in collaboration with the World Bank and the GFDRR, has developed a sustainable OpenDRI work plan currently under implementation.
Comoros
An open data sharing platform is in preparation in the Comoros, data review is currently ongoing.
Malawi
The Government of Malawi (GoM) with the support of the World Bank has been developing the Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI) with the aim of supporting evidence-based and innovative solutions to better plan, mitigate, and prepare for natural disasters and particularly for the damaging floods that occur yearly.
Battling Ebola in Sierra Leone: Data Sharing to Improve Crisis Response
In 2014, the largest Ebola outbreak in history occurred in West Africa. A number of data-driven initiatives sought to improve the quality of information available to humanitarians working to address the crisis, including the Ebola GeoNode that OpenDRI worked on deploying.
Armenia
The World Bank Group is offering support to further advance disaster resilience in the country by launching the Armenia National Disaster Risk Management Program. The OpenDRI team is just starting to support programs in Armenia.
Open Cities Sri Lanka Expands From Batticaloa City to Attanagalu Oya River Basin
By Robert Banick In years past, OpenDRI in Sri Lanka focused primarily on the Open Cities project, introducing government, students and local communities in the eastern city of Batticaloa to free and open source mapping tools. We did this so they could both map their own communities and help government disaster managers to capture risk… Read more »
The Digital Divide: a challenge to overcome in tackling climate change
Try to imagine a world without the Internet.
Impossible, isn’t it?
Over the past 25 years, the Internet has become the nervous system of our society, interconnecting all the different parts of our everyday lives. Our social interactions, ways of doing business, traveling and countless other activities are supported and governed by this technology.
At this very moment, just over three billion people are connected to the Internet, 105 billion emails are being sent, two million blog posts have just been written (including this one) and YouTube has collected four billion views. These numbers give you a glimpse of the extent to which humanity is intimately and deeply dependent on this technology.
The digital revolution has changed the daily lives of billions of people. But what about the billions who have been left out of this technological revolution?
ODI and GODAN ask for help finding valuable data for agriculture
Contribute to their crowd sourced list of different types, sources and examples of data related to agriculture to help develop a better understanding of data in the sector.
Project NOAH launches New DRRM Online Platform
Project NOAH officially launched its new disaster risk reduction and management online platform on 11 December 2015. New innovations and features were added to the platform to enhance the existing disaster information and management system. The information and improved tools included in the platform can be used in terms of planning against and preparing for disasters…
We Need Open Data to Fight Climate Change
“We’re going to need more and better data to measure and track progress against global climate change targets, including information on temperature changes, mapping deforestation and biodiversity in real time and cataloguing changes to flood plains as oceans rise. Making this data open by design could be the secret ingredient that accelerates progress.”
Leading science groups urge global accord on Open Data in a Big Data World
A group of four major international science organisations – including ISSC – have today called for global endorsement of an accord to help assure open access to volumes of “big data” that increasingly are the basis of research and policy-making.
The losing battle against corruption: why open data is important for Africa
In this article Irene Ikomu discusses how transparency through open data has the potential to eradicate corruption in Africa, but in order for that to happen the whole continent has to buy in.
The experience of Mexico’s Fonden in catastrophe bonds, lessons for Asia
New Asian Development Bank blogpost discusses how disaster related data is a vital part of risk management and shares what lessons countries in Asia can learn from Mexico’s experience with Fonden.
Crowdsourced Geographic Information Use in Government
This report, Crowdsourced Geographic Information Use in Government, is based on a six-month study of the use of volunteered geographic information (VGI) by government.
Rapid, Climate-Informed Development Needed to Keep Climate Change from Pushing More than 100 Million People into Poverty by 2030
“A new World Bank report shows that climate change is an acute threat to poorer people across the world, with the power to push more than 100 million people back into poverty over the next fifteen years. And the poorest regions of the world – Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia – will be hit the hardest.”
The economic impact of open data: what do we already know?
“Open data fuels economic growth. Many believe in the theory and ask for the proof. A new report by Nesta and the ODI adds to the evidence of the impact of open data. The report’s analysis, undertaken by PwC, examines the effects of the Open Data Challenge Series (ODCS) and predicts the programme will result in a potential 10x return (£10 for every £1 invested over three years), generating up to £10.8m for the UK economy.”
Mapping infrastructure in a vulnerable city in support of USAID/OFDA programming
During OSMGeoWeek, teams were supported by USAID/OFDA for mapping infrastructure vulnerable to the floods in Ambon, Indonesia as part of an ongoing effort to fill data gaps.
Harnessing the Power of the Crowd – Reflections Six Months after the Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal
Through the Open Data for Resilience project, The World Bank, GFDRR, and other partners are supporting efforts to map areas at risk before a disaster strikes.
•In the six months following the April 2015 earthquake, OpenStreetMap data for Nepal was accessed by more than 3,300 users using a GFDRR platform that tailored the data for response and recovery.
•Urban areas around the world, including cities in Indonesia, Philippines, Malawi and Bangladesh, are a major focus of mapping efforts.
Paying it forward in a digital age: A global community committed to a mapped world
When I first heard about OpenStreetMap (OSM) – the so called Wikipedia of maps, built by volunteers around the world – I was skeptical of its ability to scale, usability in decision making, and ultimate longevity among new ideas conceived in the digital age. Years later, having working on many disaster risk management initiatives across the globe, I can say that I am a passionate advocate for the power of this community. And I continue to be struck by the power of one small initiative like OSM that brings together people across cultures and countries to save lives. It is more than a technology or a dataset, it’s a global community of individuals committed to making a difference.
People may be surprised to find that the maps we take for granted in metropolitan areas of the developed world may be completely absent, vastly out of date, or pay-per-view in the developing world. Imagine an urban area without a transportation network, government agencies without access to the location of their assets (schools, health facilities, etc), or even a map without village names. This is the reality for many of the countries most vulnerable to disaster risk. Now, imagine this urban area facing an unprecedented crisis brought by flooding, an earthquake, a pandemic – think about the challenges of planning a response.
How to: convert XML or JSON into spreadsheets using Open Refine
One of the most useful applications of the data cleaning tool Open Refine (formerly Google Refine) is converting XML and JSON files into spreadsheets that you can interrogate in Excel…
InaSAFE 3.2.1 now released
An InaSAFE bug fix release was launched. It which provides improvements to the presentation of impact summaries and can be downloaded from the QGIS plugin manager.
Sustainable Development Goals and Open Data
The United Nations (UN) has developed a set of action-oriented goals to achieve global sustainable development by 2030 and has included the importance of open data in the context of improving resilience to disasters.
Want a ‘Data Revolution’? Then listen to what citizens really want
“Why are the #OpenData and #CivicTech movements repeating all the old mistakes about top-down development? That was the major question tackled at a community skills day during the African Open Data Conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, between September 2-5…”
World Bank Using UAVs for Disaster Risk Reduction in Tanzania
An innovative World Bank team in Tanzania is exploring the use of UAVs for disaster risk reduction efforts. Spearheaded by colleague Edward Anderson, the team recently partnered with friends at Drone Adventures to capture very high-resolution images of flood-prone areas in the country’s capital. This imagery is now being used to generate Digital Terrain Models to develop more reliable flood-inundation models at… Read more »
Digital Elevation Models: A Guidance Note on how Digital Elevation Models are Created and Used
This Guidance Note, created by the World Bank Lidar Working Group, aims to compile such knowledge in one publication and thereby address all pertinent topics of DEM creation and use, including a workflow to facilitate the best way to plan a well-informed DEM-mission or proposal, primarily aimed at non-specialists.