Climate Exchange

core reality – and they will. Already, disaster information

can reasonably and reliably move in one direction using

services like blogs, SMS, instant messaging, chat rooms,

online forums, wikis, YouTube channels, LinkedIn,

Facebook and Twitter. At the same time, mobile phones

have proven their value when responders, especially

search-and-rescue teams, can use them to locate victims.

Despite the seemingly inexorable collision of popula-

tion, urbanization, globalization and climate change risk,

as well as an overriding uncertainty about the future, there

are distinct rays of hope in the planning for future climate

change. In particular, increasing knowledge of the causes

and effects of climate change allows for a clearer definition

and prioritization of risks essential for both mitigation and

adaptation planning. As a result of these inputs, many of

the world’s largest urban centres are developing new and

innovative approaches for disaster risk reduction, andmost

importantly, climate change mitigation and adaptation is

rapidly becoming a ‘whole of society’ concern. While the

world and the urban centres prepare for the future, disaster

managers worldwide are a step away from being able to

collect, consume, analyze and share the massive amount

of data being generated worldwide and by users of mobile

devices and online services. These activities will catapult

all phases of disaster management to previously unknown

levels of responsiveness and effectiveness, giving reason to

hope that we can overcome the current challenges, includ-

ing climate change, even in a world of billions and among

people who are concentrated in megacities.

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Development of new data, including calculations of potential

climate change impacts, is underway around the world. The process

may need to be accelerated, but not at the expense of rigour or the

greatest level of detail and smallest level of scale possible. The demand

for innovation in information and communications technologies will

continue to grow with the pressures of population growth, urbaniza-

tion and climate change. If developments in meaningful technology

do not come fast enough, these changes in the human situation will

overwhelm coping capacity, again multiplying the impacts of disasters.

New technologies, data and uses

Given all the pressures of population, urbanization and climate

change, effective emergency management is possible only in an

environment where data flows rapidly both to hazard-affected popu-

lations and emergency service providers. Mobile devices make it

possible to deliver real-time, place-specific information to those who

need it – victims and service providers alike. Mobile applications,

including PDC’s Disaster Alert, also increase real-time situational

awareness for those who are threatened by disaster and those

responding with assistance. The disaster data that is collected and

analysed is, more quickly than ever before, reaching those in peril,

but new technologies also offer a tantalizing possibility that they will

become sources of new data as well.

There are challenges to be overcome in order to access and make

use of the wealth of new data from social media and mobile messag-

ing. Tapping these vast open sources of information means gathering

misleading statements along with great stores of accurate facts, for

instance. Analysts will have to learn to deal with these outliers, and to

recognize the points of information that either define or contradict the

Source: PDC

The power of information fusion: a DisasterAWARE screenshot from 28 August 2012 showing three tropical cyclones overlaid on storm intensity

zones, seven-day cumulative rainfall (observed), sea surface temperature (observed) and expected rainfall (modeled)