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

October 29, 2020 10:36 am Published by Leave a comment

  

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

Organizer: BBC Media Action, NASA, Columbia University Earth Institute’s International Research Institute with Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre

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 side 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 interactive breakout rooms 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. It will also provide time for discussion around select examples that participants bring to the session on the day.

Speakers:
Lisa Robinson, Head of Advisory. Lead on Resilience and Humanitarian Response.
Shanna McClain, Global Partnerships Manager. Risk Reduction & Resilience Advisor
Andrew Kruczkiewicz, Faculty/Senior Researcher Columbia University.
Science Adviser Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.

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Map your city’s future: A spatial data for resilience workshop

October 29, 2020 10:34 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Map your city’s future: A spatial data for resilience workshop

Organizer: World Bank City Resilience Program (CRP); GFDRR

The cities of today face the challenge of protecting their populations from extreme weather and climate change effects. Many cities of the future will only be larger, denser, and more exposed to natural hazards. What can we do to protect them? To manage and reduce their vulnerability and increase their resilience? Resilient urban planning requires strategic investment and precise spatial information about a city. Innovations in earth observation and geospatial analysis allow planners to gain new insights into current and future risk. With the right knowledge, we can get ahead of future vulnerability. This interactive session is meant for a wide audience, working side-by-side with governments in a future urban risk scenario. Map Your City’s Future is a serious game which guides planners toward open and resilient strategies for managing and reducing disaster risk. Working in teams, you will use the resources available to you to develop effective disaster risk reduction strategies for select cities. Since data is only useful if you know how to interpret it, this session will teach you how to combine geospatial data layers to create a clear picture of your city’s vulnerability, to give you insights into the difficult process of building the capacity for resilient urban planning. In this workshop, you will: Learn how open data principles can help cities improve their resilience; Learn how the intersection of multiple informative layers can provide insights about risks and resilience in a city; and, Apply a cross-sectoral perspective on urbanization and socioeconomic risk to prioritize investments in a city.

Speakers:
Steven Rubinyi, Disaster Risk Management Specialist
Grace Doherty, Geospatial Consultant
Fabio Cian, Earth Observation Consultant
Ross Eisenberg, Disaster Risk Management Consultant

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Catching fire: Evolving wildfire response for catastrophic events

October 29, 2020 10:32 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Catching fire: Evolving wildfire response for catastrophic events

Organizer: World Bank

This moderated panel discussion will bring together global wildfire and disaster management leaders to explore technological innovations, share practical insights and explore meaningful solutions to the growing challenge of catastrophic wildfires. As the climate changes, the world has marked a significant increase in the number of extreme wildland fire disasters. Around the world, in countries such as the United States, Australia, Portugal, Georgia, Nepal, Brazil and Bolivia, this phenomenon is driving an increase in civilian and firefighter deaths and creating unforeseen economic burdens. In an increasing number of cases, wildfire severity and consequence are increasing in countries and regions that are unprepared and may be unable to adopt the management practices of wealthier nations. Unlike many natural hazards, wildland fire can often be effectively mitigated during the event itself. However, the required response resources such as specialized aircraft, professionally trained teams, and emerging technologies are expensive and may not be reasonable for countries with a developing economy. As a result, from community protection strategies, to early warning systems and from regional/hemispherical resource sharing to public education, the world is falling behind in the race to reduce wildfire risk. We must innovate to catch fire.

Speakers:
Adam McAllister, CEO – McAllister & Craig Disaster Management
Joaquin Toro, Lead Disaster Risk Management Specialist, World Bank
Benjamin Fischer, Disaster Risk Reduction Specialist, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
Kim Conners, Executive Director, Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre
Euan Ferguson, Principal Consultant, Euan Ferguson Pty Ltd.
Ana Maria Canut, Operational Coordinator, Brazil’s National Center for Prevention and Fighting Wildfire (Prevfogo)
Mary Brown, GIS Specialist, Swiss Humanitarian Aid, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

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Taking the risk out of using risk profiles: The Risk Viewer tool for Latin America and Caribbean

October 29, 2020 10:31 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Taking the risk out of using risk profiles: The Risk Viewer tool for Latin America and Caribbean

Organizer: World Bank

A large number of disaster risk profiles exist that can be used for a variety of purposes: to evaluate the impact of disasters, inform risk reduction measures, assess fiscal impact of disasters and catalyze catastrophe risk insurance market growth, to name a few. However, the appropriate application of risk profiles depends on the underlying quality of their analyses for each of their components. So, how do you determine which risk profile can be used for your specific task? For the Latin America and Caribbean region, the World Bank’s Disaster-Resilience Analytics and Solutions (D-RAS) team has developed the Risk Viewer tool that answers the following questions: · What risk profiles are available for a given country? · How do results compare for a given country? · What can / can’t these profiles be used for? · How does one country’s risk compare to that of another? The session presents this tool and also highlights innovations in Latin America and the Caribbean on greater disaggregation of building and non-building infrastructure data, including projected climate-related future risk modelling and applications of public sector risk profiles. We invite you to join us for an interactive presentation on the tool, and discussion on how it can be used to address countries’ needs.

Speakers:
Rashmin Gunasekera, Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist, World Bank
Oscar Ishizawa, Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist, World Bank
James Daniell, Senior Natural Hazards Risk Engineer
Joshua Macabuag, Disaster Risk Engineer

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Understanding and assessing climate change risk to cultural heritage: The Climate Vulnerability Index applied to the Caribbean forts

October 29, 2020 10:29 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Understanding and assessing climate change risk to cultural heritage: The Climate Vulnerability Index applied to the Caribbean forts

Organizer: CVI, James Cook University, ICOMOS, INES Ingenieros, WeArchitects, Moun Studi

Introduction to the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) methodology and how its application can help identify and determine the most appropriate mitigation measures to be integrated into cultural heritage rehabilitation projects in the Caribbean. Two case studies will be used as example to show the outcome of the CVI application, mainly seeking that the final rehabilitation design ensures the cultural heritage asset resilience to the climate actions which will need to face. The case studies target the rehabilitation of Fortifications built in the 17th and 18th century in the islands of Haiti and Grenada, which current state of conservation shows damages due to a lack of resilience mainly to hurricanes but also to seismic events. The CVI is a rapid assessment tool that has been specifically developed for application to World Heritage properties. The CVI framework builds upon the vulnerability framework approach described in the 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Vulnerability of OUV (Outstanding Universal Value) is determined by assessing the exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity with respect to determined climate drivers. The OUV Vulnerability becomes the exposure term to assess the vulnerability of the community associated with the property, combining with assessments of economic-social¬cultural dependency (sensitivity) and adaptive capacity. While the case studies will show how can designers can take advantage of this assessment methodology, the CVI creators will sum up with which is the added value and potential of using this assessment tool for the stakeholders.

Speakers:
Scott Heron, Associate Professor in Physics at James Cook University, Australia
Patxi Gastaminza, We Architects Director
David López, Disaster Risk and Structural Engineer specialist
Jon Day, CVI co-founder / Conservator / Post career PhD
Bárbara Mínguez, World Bank Disaster Risk Management and Cultural Heritage Consultant

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On Bullshit, Candor and Climate Risk: Reconciling Intent, Words and Actions

October 29, 2020 10:27 am Published by Leave a comment

  

On Bullshit, Candor and Climate Risk: Reconciling Intent, Words and Actions

Organizer: Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre *this session is part of the Development & Climate Days

Why a humanitarian event on “bullshit”? The answer is simple: it is our job to care. And as climate risk management practitioners it’s hard to care for others when others don’t care about the insidiously pervasive nonsense cooking climate inaction. The deep mismatch between rhetoric, intentions and deeds is not unique to climate and development: we live in an age of bullshit (indifference to the truth). Philosopher Harry Frankfurt, in his book “On Bullshit” (2005, Princeton University Press) identifies this as ‘one of the most salient features of our culture’. Anchored in the need to understand and address risk, we deepen that analytically rigorous framework examining the various ‘flavors’ of bullshit (promissory, nonsensical, self-contradicting, optimistic, and whatevering). With your active engagement, we will examine and confront the current incentive structures making bullshit palatable to people and organizations. Interested in experiencing and co-creating thought-provoking cartoons, courage-provoking concepts, action-provoking tools, and inspiration-provoking art?  Join our unconventional, serious-yet-fun exploration of how to detect and confront BS.

This session is divided in two parts. The main session will last 90 minutes (UTC 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM) with additional 25 minutes for group work.

Speakers:
Pablo Suarez, Associate Director for Research and Innovation, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
Hayley Stevenson, Associate professor, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
Pierre Thiam, Chef, Author, Social Activist. PierreThiam.com
Bob Mankoff, President, CartoonCollections.com

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Racism, Exclusion & Risk: Making Meaning Matters

October 29, 2020 10:26 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Racism, Exclusion & Risk: Making Meaning Matters

Organizer: GFDRR

The widespread prevalence of racism in our society and institutions shapes disaster risks. Mechanisms of differentiation based on race are determinants in the social construction of vulnerability and exposure, perpetuating systemic patterns of exclusion and privilege. By overlooking reality, people and organizations often fail to notice racism, or anticipate the risks this can engender and entrench. We can do something about it… But how to start making sense at the difficult intersection of race and risk? Hop into this interactive session with literaryperformer Regie Gibson and risk-taker Janot Mendler de Suarez. Regie will coach “meaning-making” in spoken word with the “HipHop generator” to create short verses expressing lived experience, questions and insights. Lines created in this session will feed into the co-creation of Regie’s UR2020 concluding Spoken Word performance on anti-racism, inclusion and resilience. This community session has been organized by Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery. It builds off a World Bank Anti-Racism workshop developed by World Bank’s Social Sustainability and Inclusion Global Practice.

Speakers:
Regie Gibson, LiteraryPerformer
Janot Mendler de Suarez, Technical Advisor, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre

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The power of partnership: Sparking public-private engagement in hydromet services

October 29, 2020 10:25 am Published by Leave a comment

  

The power of partnership: Sparking public-private engagement in hydromet services

Organizer: World Bank/GFDRR

The need for hydromet and early warning services is at historical high due to growing population density, urbanization and more frequent events triggered by the climate changes. At the same time, scientific and technological capacity are progressing very rapidly, offering potentially diverse solutions to meet such demands. However, most advances are seen in the developed countries and supported by the private sector leaving developing countries with a gap in hydromet and early warning services. Creating an enabling environment for closer and strategic cooperation between the public, private and academic sectors is a prerequisite for effectively embracing novel solutions. Against this backdrop, the session will present the recently launched report “The Power of Partnership,” discuss key recommendations for creating more vibrant public-private-academic engagements in hydromet sector and how these can be applied in the real world. Distinguished speakers will include representatives from Royal HaskoningDHV, Spire Global, Weathernews America, Inc. (WNI), IBM, and the University of Oklahoma.

Speakers:
Theresa Condor, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at Spire Global, Inc.
Hanneke (J.M.) Schuurmans Msc. PhD. | Leading Professional Digital Water at Royal HaskoningDHV
Robert D. Palmer | Associate Vice President for Research & Partnerships at the University of Oklahoma
Lance Steele| Computer programmer for satellite data processing applications at Weathernews America, Inc. (WNI)
Salvatore R. Bruno | Senior Solution Architect at IBM

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Responsible artificial intelligence (AI) for disaster risk management

October 29, 2020 10:23 am Published by Leave a comment

  

Responsible artificial intelligence (AI) for disaster risk management

As the Understanding Risk Community continues to explore the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence and related technologies and expand the range of applications for which they are used, we need to pay close attention to the risks that these tools create. Significant attention is currently being given by academics, journalists, and the public to questions of the ethics and bias of artificial intelligence systems across a variety of domains including facial recognition, automated weapons systems, search algorithms, and criminal justice. Despite the potential for negative impacts of these tools in disaster risk management, our community has not given these issues as much attention as it has in other domains. This session will help to advance the discussion by highlighting several recent or emerging initiatives that aim to ensure AI tools are used responsibly and in service of a more just, resilient, and sustainable world.

Organizer: GFDRR, University of Toronto, Deltares

Speakers:
Caroline Gevaert, Assistant Professor at the Faculty Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC)
Greg Lipstein, Co-founder of DrivenData
Robert Soden, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto
Hanneke van der Klis, Chased 23.11

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A call to action for resilience: Moving from research to practice

October 29, 2020 10:22 am Published by Leave a comment

  

A call to action for resilience: Moving from research to practice

Organizer: NASA and ImageCat, Inc.

The applications of earth observations (EO) in the context of risk assessment are compelling, yet relatively little has been done to extend the use of EO data to the management of risk and enhancing resilience. The advent of cloud computing can potentially extend the detection of the impacts of disasters from single events to decades worth of archived data for use in probabilistic models. Exposure of assets to disasters can be characterized for modeling applications, including critical infrastructure, the inference of vulnerability, and the progression of risk through time. The ability to monitor recovery remotely can provide critical data that can be used to model economic resilience over a period of years and decades, potentially leading to new avenues for modeling secondary impacts. This session will identify some of the challenges in moving from risk to resilience, and provide examples where EO data ultimately contributes to facilitating specific decisions or applications at the local level. This session represents a call to action for increased focus on the opportunities available, and we invite your participation in this event.

Speakers:
Shanna McClain, NASA Global Partnerships Manager, Risk Reduction & Resilience Advisor
Charles Huyck, Executive Vice President, ImageCat
Robert Chen, Director, Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), The Earth Institute, Columbia University
Sahar Safaie, Founder and Principal Consultant, Sage On Earth Consulting Ltd.
Jenty Kirsch-Wood, Head of Global Risk Management and Reporting, UNDRR

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