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Misinformation, disinformation, and risk: When science alone doesn’t cut it

February 14, 2020 5:19 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Misinformation, disinformation, and risk: When science alone doesn’t cut it

Showcasing, demonstrating and launching a tool-kit

communicatE · risk communication

Information alone in insufficient for prompting action in regard to the reduction of risk. Cognitive biases, blind-spots, and social norms are just some of the ways that diminish one’s ability to make decisions and take action. But what happens when we layer misinformation and disinformation on top of these already existing challenges, leaving people to decipher what is true, what isn’t, and how to make decisions that affect real life? This Focus Day event will provide examples of how misinformation and disinformation can impede risk-related decision making. It will explore how scientists, media professionals, government agencies, communication managers and others can work together effectively, translating technical information and cutting through increasingly complicated media landscapes to help ordinary people make informed decisions that reduce risk and save lives.

The session will open with a brief presentation followed by an interactive workshop that tests approaches to preventing and responding to mis- and disinformation.The workshop will center around a number of scenarios based on real-life challenges (sourced from a range of actors in the lead up to the event, including registered participants). It will also provide ample time for discussion around any examples that participants bring to the session on the day.

Organizer: BBC Media Action

Partner organizations: NASA, Columbia University International Research Institute, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre


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Reaching vulnerable communities faster: A hands-on exercise to explore how to improve information flows for humanitarian decision-makers

February 14, 2020 5:13 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Reaching vulnerable communities faster: A hands-on exercise to explore how to improve information flows for humanitarian decision-makers

communicatE · Data · risk communication · Design, visualization and art

The ability to create climate hazard monitoring products has proliferated thanks to an increase in the availability of satellite data, the internet of things, other big data and the technology to analyze it. However, the ability to interpret and to ultimately use this data for measuring risk and impact on vulnerable populations remains a significant challenge. For example, in 2019, Cyclone Idai devastated Mozambique, creating almost as much damage as a cyclone in 2000 of the same magnitude.

Clearly, nearly 20 years of scientific advancements and development had not reduced the risk of the country. The ability to make difficult decisions on who to assist given finite resources is limited by a lack of actionable information which meets the needs of users, particularly data and information on vulnerable communities. To create effective systems for decision-makers, new interdisciplinary, user-centric research priorities and goals are needed to better deliver actionable information to decision makers. At the same time, given the limited response capacity in many disaster-prone countries, determining where to allocate resources requires a deeper understanding of the relationship between climate hazards and their consequences on vulnerable communities.

Key questions will be explored during this workshop to bring these topics into focus: Who are the decision makers at various levels and phases of the disaster cycle that are users of risk analysis and monitoring products? How can reliable risk information be communicated to them most effectively to protect lives and livelihoods? With limited resources available, who specifically is vulnerable to each of these hazards? How should data and information on vulnerable communities be presented to make them actionable? How can this information ultimately feed into decision support systems?

To demonstrate the critical value of actionable risk information focused on vulnerable communities, participants will take part in a disaster response scenario where a sudden onset shock requires immediate humanitarian response. With a limited amount of information, participants will need to decide where to allocate limited resources and to whom. Following the exercise, participants will revisit the information needs and be asked to present their findings and defend the decisions made. Participants will be asked to reflect on how information could have been packaged earlier to allow for better decisions, and subsequently to better prepare for future disaster response.

This Focus Day event seeks to bring researchers and practitioners together to discuss pathways to operationalize vulnerability research and to bring human centered design principles to risk monitoring systems in order to increase the effectiveness of decision-makers to reach the most vulnerable communities impacted by weather-driven hazards.

Organizer: World Food Programme, Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific

Partner organization: Cloud to Street, Red Cross Climate Centre, International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia University


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Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) for DRM

February 14, 2020 5:01 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) for DRM

identify · risk assessment

The Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) for DRM is a user-friendly multi-hazard risk assessment platform, which allows users to evaluate the best possible risk reduction alternatives for present and future scenarios. In order to evaluate present and future risks, users can analyze the changes in hazard extent and intensity as well as the vulnerability of the elements-at-risk. The platform facilitates the evaluation of risk reduction alternatives (structural and non-structural) in terms of cost and benefits. The prototype of the platform is ready and now it is being upgraded to a standalone open-source system in the cloud.

Organizer: Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand

Partner organizations: ITC, University of Twente, The Netherlands


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The Global Rapid Post-Disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE) approach

February 14, 2020 4:50 am Published by Leave a comment

  

The Global Rapid Post-Disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE) approach

identify · data · risk assessment

The session will provide training on the Global Rapid Post-disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE) approach developed by the World Bank for those interested in adopting the approach. The approach is designed to provide an initial rapid estimation within 2 weeks of the physical post-disaster damage in terms of economic damage incurred.

The session will present practical experiences from past events and highlight some of the outputs of GRADE that include a) aggregated direct and indirect damage estimations by economic sector,
b) potential impacts on gross domestic product (GDP) and the economy, and
c) estimations of human casualties (in the case of earthquakes). The approach is increasingly and consistently being highlighted as an integral tool in rapid post-disaster response.

Organizer: World Bank


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Telling a story that can change the world: Hands-on workshop with ArcGIS StoryMaps

February 14, 2020 4:46 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Telling a story that can change the world: Hands-on workshop with ArcGIS StoryMaps

communicatE · data · risk communication · Design, visualization and art

Patrick Abbot once said, ”If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a map must be worth a million.” But, what if we could combine pictures and maps together while fully immersing someone in an interactive, online story telling experience? ArcGIS StoryMaps are a medium to do just that – to tell an amazing story, drive action and awareness, and make a difference in our world by combining the art of storytelling with maps and graphics. Join this interactive, and hands-on, workshop to learn the 9 steps to great story telling, how to build an ArcGIS StoryMap from scratch, and leave with a storyboard of your very own personal story to begin changing the world tomorrow.

This session requires you to bring a laptop with an internet browser to build a story map. Access to ArcGIS StoryMaps online and all training materials will be provided for you. If you do not have access to a laptop, the first part of the workshop will be around storytelling and best practices that you can still interact with!

*This training is offered twice.

Organizer: Esri


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Adaptive cross-sectoral disaster recovery and risk reduction in Sulawesi, Indonesia: Collaborations between global non-profits and national civil society

February 14, 2020 4:29 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Adaptive cross-sectoral disaster recovery and risk reduction in Sulawesi, Indonesia: Collaborations between global non-profits and national civil society

use · risk assessment · Stakeholder collaboration · earthquake · tsunami

In the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami which struck Sulawesi, Indonesia in October, 2018 Direct Relief joined efforts with the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Center) and the leading Indonesian civil society organization Muhammadiyah, to link health-sector and housing needs for the sake of immediate recovery and long-term risk reduction. Efforts to join response and risk reduction regularly suffer from informational and operational gaps which prevent agencies from understanding needs and risks in relevant time frames to adjust for the demands of dynamic situations. In Sulawesi, for instance, liquefaction of land following the earthquake increased uncertainty in significant ways for displaced populations and infrastructure repair efforts. That uncertainty in turn required novel combinations of detailed geospatial mapping and local knowledge for effective and secure recovery investments.

The partnership between these three groups ultimately produced targeted retrofitting of health facilities and full-scale reconstruction of a primary hospital in the city of Palu, as well as housing redevelopment for IDPs. This workshop will detail the collaborative engagement between types of organizations, across housing and health sectors, in both immediate and long-term risk reduction contexts, to understand conditions for future disaster recovery in Sulawesi.

Organizer: Direct Relief

Partner organization: Muhammadiyah Disaster Management Center (MDMC)


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Ambition for early action at COP26: REAP (Risk-informed Early Action Partnership)

February 14, 2020 4:20 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Ambition for early action at COP26: REAP (Risk-informed Early Action Partnership)

use · early warning

Partnership meeting to discuss ambition for global level policy on early action / anticipation ahead of COP26. Current and prospective partners of REAP are welcome.

Organizer: REAP/International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies

Partner Organization: International Telecommunication Union (ITU), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) Secretariat, Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre), Practical Action, and national agencies and NGOs


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Virtual reality for urban risk perception enhancing

February 14, 2020 4:13 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Virtual reality for urban risk perception enhancing

communicate · Emerging technologies · risk communication · earthquake

Risk, in its technical (and classic) definition is the product of three factors: hazard, exposure and vulnerability. Curiously, only in 2015 the UNDRR clearly defined that the aforementioned entities are represented also by communities and individuals, enlarging vulnerability to a set of intrinsic characteristics with a human feature. In the correct and effective estimation of the the human entrenchment lies the challenge of the vulnerability assessment and the achievement of a sustainable resilience strengthening.

From a neurocognition perspective, risk is considered a feeling. This means that risk perception involves measurable and specific emotional responses as any other feeling at brain level. At the same time, behavioral sciences refer to the following concepts to evaluate and classify risk: Neglected risk condition is obviously the worst case for decision making and it usually derives from an overestimation of the required actions due to dreadful consequences preoccupation. The emotional response plays a negative role in the form of a blinding mechanism. On the opposite, contemplated risk leads to an underestimation of the necessary measures under the illusion of attainable control. To move from this to the experienced risk box the production of an experience is mandatory, and this can only come from the fixation of an emotional reaction.

In this workshop we propose to explore and design the use of Virtual Reality to simulate real time and post-disaster scenarios of urban environments stricken by earthquakes. We will also share some worldwide (Indonesia, Italy and South America) results of some successful application of such methodology by our Lab.

Organizer: MIT Senseable City Lab


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Accelerating a shift from critical infrastructure resilience theory to practice

February 14, 2020 4:04 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Accelerating a shift from critical infrastructure resilience theory to practice

use · risk assessment · infrastructure

The Resilience Shift will host an open meeting that brings together the different industrial and academic programmes who are focused on improving the resilience of critical infrastructure. The aim of the meeting is to strengthen the networks between these respective industrial and academic programs. Collectively, this is key to creating systematic change to make the world safer at a global scale. We will look to understand the challenges and opportunities for accelerating the shift of academic research around resilience into practice, helping to build a global community of practitioners.

The Resilience Shift, supported by Arup and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, wants to inspire and empower a global community to make the world safer through resilient infrastructure. The programme provides knowledge and tools for those responsible for planning, financing, designing, delivering, operating and maintaining critical infrastructure systems.

This Focus Day event will provide an initial platform for participants to discuss and share ideas on critical infrastructure resilience, including risks, available tools and data, and existing resilience frameworks. We will achieve this through a brief presentation on the Resilience Shift and its objectives, and an overview of the session, followed by a World Café style session. Participants will likely be representatives from international organizations, leaders in public and private sectors and leading experts in academia.

We will use this session to help us understand the challenges, methods and tools, limitations and knowledge gaps to be addressed to improve resilience of critical infrastructure globally. As well as supporting the development of a global community of practice.

Organizer: Resilience Shift

Partner organizations: Arup, Lloyd’s Register Foundation


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Geospatial data for post disaster building damage assessment challenge

February 14, 2020 3:42 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Geospatial data for post disaster building damage assessment challenge

identify · data

The session will announce the winner of the “geospatial data for post disaster building damage assessment challenge” and host a panel discussion with the winning team and experts on this topic where the feasibility of the winning approach(es) and challenge to implement will be discussed.

Organizer: World Bank EAP DRM