Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: June 2022 Edition

GPDRR2022- Co-Chairs’ Summary: Bali Agenda for Resilience
The seventh session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction took place from 25 to 27 May 2022 in Bali, Indonesia. It was co-chaired by H.E. Prof. Muhadjir Effendy, Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, and Ms. Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction. Organized in a hybrid format, the Global Platform had over 4000 participants from a total of 185 countries.

Investing in resilient infrastructure for a better future
Day-to-day life depends on infrastructure and its services. This includes supply chains, electricity, water and sanitation, and information networks. But in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and increasingly extreme weather events, these systems are under increasing threat. In December 2020, Cyclone Yasa, a single event, caused around USD 1.4 billion in damage to health facilities, homes, schools, and other critical infrastructure in the Pacific island nation of Fiji. Beyond the economic toll, there was immeasurable disruption to people’s lives due to downed systems, extending the duration of the disaster beyond the passing of the cyclone.

The climate Risk and Early Warning Systems initiative brings a message of hope
In a year overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic fallout, 2021 nevertheless saw progress towards strengthening early warning services and building resilience to extreme weather and climate change impacts in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries. This is one of the critical messages of the 2021 Annual Report of the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems Initiative (CREWS). This unique climate action programme helps save lives, livelihoods and assets in the world’s most vulnerable countries.

Building the evidence for more effective disaster risk reduction
After a long hiatus due to the COVID crisis, governments have come together in Bali last week to discuss progress on implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. Organised by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and hosted by the Government of Indonesia, the seventh session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction comes at a crucial time. While countries struggle to address the compounded threats of food, fuel and financial insecurity amid a pandemic, many must also still contend with the threat of natural hazards and the terrible costs they exact.

A new study of the relationship between climate change and socio-economic tipping points
Climate change can cause sudden socio-economic tipping points, such as large-scale bankruptcies of low-lying ski resorts, the collapse of house prices due to sea-level rise, or the extensive disruption of the road network due to flooding. Kees van Ginkel (Deltares) spent four years researching tipping points of this kind. He will present the results, which have been published in various journals, at a scientific conference in Vienna (EGU) this week.

Policy Brief: Harnessing data to accelerate the transition from disaster response to recovery
The CODATA Task Group on FAIR Data for Disaster Risk Research has produced a Policy Brief as input to the seventh session of the Global Platform (GP2022), organised by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) from 23 to 28 May 2022, in Bali, Indonesia. This policy brief was published alongside two ISC policy briefs on the same occasion.

Principles for resilient infrastructure
The Principles for Resilient Infrastructure describe a set of principles, key actions, and guidelines to create national scale net resilience gain and improve the continuity of critical services such as energy, transport, water, wastewater, waste, and digital communications, which enable health, education, etc. to function effectively.

Technical Guidance on Comprehensive Risk Assessment and Planning in the Context of Climate Change
Climate change is increasing the magnitude, frequency, duration and severity of climate-related hazards, leading to complex and cascading risks that make people and systems more vulnerable today in years to come. A comprehensive understanding of risks is thus a priority. This document is also a pivotal contribution to the Plan of Action of the Technical Expert Group on Comprehensive Risk Management of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts.

Closing the Gap between Science and Practice at Local Levels to Accelerate Disaster Risk Reduction
This policy brief analyses the existing gap between science and technology (S&T) and its incorporation into disaster risk management at local levels.

The road to COP27: Making Africa’s case in the climate debate
This study explores the potential impacts of compounding risk between natural hazards and infectious disease outbreaks, such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) region. Compound risk occurs when two or more shock events overlap, inducing additional pressure on social and physical vulnerabilities. As part of the study, scenarios of a natural hazard occurring during an outbreak are created for each CAREC country.

Projecting the effects of climate change on the informed risk index
This contributing paper presents an extension of the INFORM Risk Index, a global indicator-based disaster risk assessment tool. By using projections of exposure to climate change hazards to provide better insights for policymakers on the threats imposed by climate change and the extent to the amplified risks can be compensated by reduced vulnerability and increased adaptive capacity measures.

Webinar: Inside the NZ Emissions Reduction Plan – June 2
The NZ Emissions Reduction Plan, released on Monday, 16 May contains strategies, policies, and actions to achieve our first emissions budget as required by the Climate Change Response Act 2002. Climate Change Minister Hon James Shaw says that the plan ‘will require nearly every part of Government to act to reduce emissions right across the country.’ It’s being touted as a major step towards taking tangible climate action, requiring big changes. If you’re interested in discussing with us and others what these changes may mean for your organisation and how to best respond: I will be joined by T+T Technical Director – Climate and Resilience James Hughes and Chapman Tripp’s climate regulatory and risk experts Alana Lampitt and Nicola Swan to host an interactive online session on Thursday 2 June to unpack the Emissions Reduction Plan and field any questions on how to tackle emissions reduction.

WorldFAIR – Global cooperation on FAIR data policy and practice – June 20 
The major global scientific and human challenges of the 21st century (including climate change, sustainable development, and disaster risk reduction) can only be addressed through cross-domain research that seeks to understand complex systems through machine-assisted analysis at scale. WorldFAIR project comprises a genuinely global consortium and 11 case studies in a range of research fields.  The objective of each case study is to unpack the research questions, characterise the data requirements and develop an interoperability framework for their discipline or interdisciplinary research area. This is done in cooperation with CODATA and the Research Data Alliance, organisations that have developed recommendations and technical frameworks to assist with interoperability on various levels.

International Data Week 2022 – 20-23rd June 
International Data Week (IDW) is a landmark event organised by the Committee on Data (CODATA) and the World Data System (WDS) of the International Science Council (ISC), and the Research Data Alliance (RDA).
It brings together data scientists, researchers, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers and data stewards from disciplines across the globe to explore how best to exploit the data revolution to improve science and society through data-driven discovery and innovation.  IDW combines the RDA Plenary Meeting, the biannual meeting of this international membership organisation working to develop and support global infrastructure facilitating data sharing and reuse, and SciDataCon, the scientific conference addressing the frontiers of data in research organised by CODATA and WDS.