Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: October 2019 Edition

“If you ask us for ideas, act on them” – Youth call out UN, world leaders on climate action
The Youth Climate Action Summit brought youth climate champions together from more than 140 countries and territories to a platform to share their solutions on the global stage, and deliver a clear message to world leaders: we need to act now to address climate change.

Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data – Data for Now Initiative
The Data For Now initiative seeks to increase the sustainable use of robust methods and tools that improve the timeliness, coverage, and quality of SDG data through collaboration and partnership, technical and capacity support, and information sharing.

We could be losing the race against climate change, new UN report says
Scientists behind a landmark study of the links between oceans, glaciers, ice caps and the climate delivered a stark warning to the world on Wednesday: slash emissions or watch cities vanish under rising seas, rivers run dry and marine life collapse.

UNEP FI: Leading Financial Firms Commit to Improved Transparency on the Risks of Climate Change
The Global Commission on Adaption estimates over $7 trillion of climate change-related damages over the next ten years. To respond to these challenges, five leading banks and investors are committing to disclose risks and opportunities for their portfolios from the impacts of climate change by 2021.

UK Government: UK Aid to protect one billion people form impact of extreme weather
A new £175 million package will help make people safer and better prepared for disasters such as typhoons and hurricanes, as well as dealing with the aftermath.

Artificial Intelligence May Help Predict El Niño
Professor Yoo-Geun Ham and collaborators created a model using deep learning that forecasts El Niño and La Niña events 18 months in advance, beating current models that forecast only 1 year ahead.

Next Generation Disaster Data Infrastructure
Based on the targets of the Sendai Framework, this white paper proposes the next generation of disaster data infrastructure, which includes both novel and the most essential information systems and services that a country or a region can depend on to successfully gather, process and display disaster data to reduce the impact of natural hazards.

SDSN TReNDS Counting on the World to Act –  A Roadmap for Governments to Achieve Modern Data Systems for Sustainable Development
In this report TReNDS details an action plan for governments and their development partners that will enable them to help deliver the SDGs globally by 2030.  Report recommendations specifically aim to empower government actors or others concerned with evidence in support of sustainable development to advocate for, build, and lead a new data ecosystem.

NASA’s Earth Observing Data and Information System – Near-Term Challenges
NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) has been a central component of the NASA Earth observation program since the 1990s. EOSDIS has evolved continually over the past three decades. However, many challenges remain. Challenges in three key areas are addressed in this paper: managing volume and variety, enabling data discovery and access, and incorporating user feedback and concerns.

Optimising Data Visualisation to Improve Humanitarian Decision-Making
The IFRC is inviting personnel and volunteers to submit visualisation designs for three core emergency operational datasets. The ten winners of the challenge will be invited to Geneva to attend a 3 day training on design principles led by Andy Kirk. Deadline for submission is 24 October.

World Bosai Forum/International Disaster Risk Conference 2019 – (09-12 Nov, Sendai, Japan)
The World Bosai Forum proposes solutions from various points of view to enable disaster risk reduction in Japan and overseas and aims to promote the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.

GCF – Private Investment For Climate Conference 2019 – (Incheon, Republic of Korea, 7-9 October)
The GCF Private Investment for Climate Conference (“GPIC”) is a global marketplace and ecosystem where leading private sector actors including project sponsors, institutional investors, financial institutions, climate leaders, and the public sector come together to accelerate climate action in developing countries.

CODATA – VizAfrica Botswana (18-19 Nov, Botswana)
The VizAfrica 2019 Data Visualization Symposium will take place from 18th -19th November at the University of Botswana Gaborone, Botswana. The theme of the symposium is “Application of Data, Information and Scientific Visualization for Resource Management and Sustainability.”

CODATA – Helsinki Workshop on FAIR RDM in INstitutions (20-21 October, Helsinki, Finland) 
FAIR Research Data Management involves robust planning, policies, infrastructure, training and support. Institutes that produce and consume data are required to ensure seamless accessibility to data and ensure practices that foster its reuse.