Tag: Sharing Data

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 »

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

GeoNode Deployment Guide

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.”

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.”

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.

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.

MAPA-HANDA: Customizing InaSAFE for Philippine Context

Understanding the importance of decentralizing DRRM for a more relevant DRRM planning, Philippine’s National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), the NationaI Youth Commission (NYC), and the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) initiated MAPA-HANDA, a joint effort to develop online modules on mapping for local DRRM planning.

To Save Lives and Livelihoods, Start By Understanding Disaster Risk

In 1999, the state of Odisha, India, was hit by the most powerful tropical cyclone ever recorded in the North Indian Ocean, causing nearly 10,000 fatalities and US$5 billion in damages. For the next decade, the government of Odisha and partners worked to identify and mitigate cyclone risk. When the similarly intense Cyclone Phailin struck Odisha in October 2013, the region counted 99.6% fewer deaths.

We cannot prevent a monsoon or cyclone from striking ­­– and as population growth, urbanization, and climate change are on the rise, the frequency and impact of natural disasters will increase. But with innovation, collaboration and a better understanding of risk, we can build communities that are more resilient to natural hazards.

Open Cities in Kathmandu: Health Centers Critical Health Sector Infrastructure

As detailed in the context of Kathmandu, one aspect of the the Open Cities Project engagement is the collection of asset and exposure data in urban areas in order to create a robust asset inventory. The Open Cities Project collects data through open and participatory methods in partnership with local government agencies, universities, technical communities, and the private sector. Open Cities Kathmandu has to date mapped over 100,000 buildings and collected exposure data for 2256 educational and 350 health facilities within Kathmandu Valley.

Open Cities in Kathmandu: Educational Facilities Critical Educational Sector Infrastructure

As detailed in the context of Kathmandu, one aspect of the the Open Cities Project engagement is the collection of asset and exposure data in urban areas in order to create a robust asset inventory. The Open Cities Project collects data through open and participatory methods in partnership with local government agencies, universities, technical communities, and the private sector. Open Cities Kathmandu has to date mapped over 100,000 buildings and collected exposure data for 2256 educational and 350 health facilities within Kathmandu Valley.

Helping Build Resilient Communities

Following the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004, the Government of Indonesia began compiling a comprehensive approach to disaster risk management (DRM). The World Bank has helped through several small interventions, such as preparing the software program InaSafe and supporting the building of ‘safe’ schools, which have had wide-ranging impact and incorporate disaster risk management in overall development planning.

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.

Webinar: Data for Post-Disaster Decision-Making in Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines

We are kicking off our Caribbean Open Data for Resilience (OpenDRI) Webinar Series on Wednesday, March 26 at 2:30 pm ET! This webinar, Data for Post-Disaster Decision-Making in Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, will focus on the Rapid Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLA) conducted in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the rapid disaster impact needs assessment conducted in Saint Lucia following the heavy rains that occurred on December 25, 2013.

Building climate and disaster resilience through open data and innovation

Type: Meeting or Conference Organizer: Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, the (GFDRR); World Bank, the (WB) Date: 20-21 Mar 2014 Location: United States of America (Washington D.C.) Venue: World Bank This two-day workshop will bring together key leaders from business, government, international development, academia and civil society to explore how we can work… Read more »

Insights in DRM – A Case for Open Data

Here is the debut publication of “Insights in DRM – A Practitioner’s Perspective on Disaster Risk Management in Latin America and the Caribbean”. The first issue, Open Data for Resilience (OpenDRI) in the Caribbean, focuses on the use of spatial data in decision making to reduce disaster risk.

Bank Climate Change Portal Helps Visualize World Climate, Expands Access to Data

How much will temperatures rise in 30, 40, or 50 years? How could changing weather affect rain-fed crops in the Horn of Africa, or winter flooding and summer droughts in Uzbekistan? And what should countries do to prepare for more intense droughts and storms?

These are the kinds of questions the World Bank hopes to answer with a new initiative to expand access to climate data and spark innovation in the fight against climate change around the world.