Tag: Global

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.

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.

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.

Introduction to InaSAFE

Learn more about InaSAFE, a free software that produces realistic natural hazard impact scenarios for better planning, preparedness and response activities.

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.

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.

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.

GeoNode Deployment Guide

This GeoNode Deployment Guide, developed by the OpenDRI team, presents general guidelines on the steps and requirements to deploy a GeoNode.

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?

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.”

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.”

Understanding Risk in an Evolving World

The last ten years have seen marked improvement in disaster risk assessment capabilities and communication efforts. As the period of the Hyogo Framework for Action comes to an end, Understanding Disaster Risk in an Evolving World – Emerging Best Practices in Risk Assessment and its accompanying Policy Note seek to inform the post-2015 discussions. Through an examination of more than 50 case studies, including some from World Bank and GFDRR teams, this reference guide by the GFDRR Innovation Lab offers best practices in the creation, communication, quality, and transparency of risk information. Topics range from satellite earth observations to community mapping and from risk financing to urban disaster risk modeling.

TechRepublic highlights OpenDRI’s “excellent new field guide”

In a TechRepublic article, Alex Howard gives the Open Data for Resilience Initiative Field Guide a shout out while discussing how releasing open data supports the United States federal government’s goal of improving community resilience against climate change and primes the pump for meaningful reuse by tech giants.

New World Bank Tool Enhances Access and Communication of Climate and Disaster Risk Data

With an increasingly unpredictable climate and rising numbers of natural disasters, the need for accurate and actionable data for the project of building resilience is growing. In response, the World Bank has launched the Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI) Field Guide, a practical manual for governments and other organizations aimed at setting foundational standards for the open source creation and communication of disaster and climate change information.