An article illustrating the importance and benefits of the data engineering approach recommended by the WorldFAIR Policy Brief, was published on 19th August 2026 on the UNDRR’s PreventionWeb site.
‘A data engineering approach to tracking global climate resilience’ outlines the challenges related to developing consistent, efficient, and accurate methods for assessing the Belém indicators (adopted at the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference in November 2025) for measuring progress towards climate resilience. Also described are how the Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework (CDIF), the CDIF4EOSC project and other tools and methods supported by CODATA can help realise meet these challenges.
The article was written by Bapon Fakhruddin, co-chair of the CODATA FAIR Data for Disaster Risk Research Task Group, with input from Matti Heikkurinen, CODATA Project Portfolio Manager.
The adoption of 59 indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) at the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém represents a significant development in measuring climate adaptation. After a decade in which international commitments were expressed largely through general formulations such as “enhancing resilience” and “reducing vulnerability”, Parties now have a defined set of measurable dimensions. These include water stress, crop yields, health system readiness, infrastructure resilience, and the protection of cultural heritage.
However, the value of any such indicator set depends entirely on whether the reporting entities measure the same phenomena using comparable methods. That condition is not yet satisfied, and meeting it constitutes the substantive work now ahead.
Adaptation is not a single dataset. It comprises numerous distinct data holdings distributed across national hydrological and meteorological services (NHMSs), sectoral ministries, national disaster management authorities (NDMAs), utilities, environmental and biodiversity monitoring programmes, and, of particular importance, the accumulated knowledge of local communities that have adapted to their environments over generations.
Each of these sources operates within its own technical conventions. For example, one country may define a “climate-resilient road” as a road designed to withstand a 1-in-50-year flood, while another may use a 1-in-100-year standard. As a result, data that appear similar may not be directly comparable unless the definitions, units, and evidence requirements are clearly documented. […]
Read more on PreventionWeb.