New tool helps communities prepare for natural disasters
From wildfires in the West to hurricanes in the Southeast to flooding in Texas, natural disasters are taking their toll across the country.climate change is increase frequency Disruptive climate and weather events.
A newly revamped tool from National Disaster Preparedness Center Columbia University (NCDP) climate school The aim is to help communities better respond to natural disasters by providing data-driven information about the specific risks faced by different geographic regions.this Natural Hazard Index Map Application is a public, interactive map showing the severity of 14 different natural hazards in the United States and Puerto Rico, including extreme heat, earthquakes, landslides, tornadoes, and floods. The tool was updated in collaboration with investment firm AllianceBernstein.
“We saw the need to develop a tool to help people better understand the risks they face in their backyard,” said Jonathan Suri, program leaders and senior staff work with NCDP, which works to understand and improve capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. “The first step in preparing is knowing your risks.”
recently remodeled Natural Disaster Index Lets you zoom in on climate, weather and geohazards in your own backyard, then learn how to protect yourself.
It is hoped that this tool will provide people and communities with the information they need to develop strategic disaster response plans and accelerate efforts to reduce risk and vulnerability. Sury expects the tool to be used by health departments, municipal groups, emergency management, families and individuals, academia and others.
“It’s going to help tell a community’s story and help raise awareness of what’s possible on the ground,” Suri said. “It’s a preparedness tool – but it’s also a communication and advocacy tool for important mitigation activities and critical investments that help address climate and weather vulnerabilities.”
The map provides both a comprehensive account of the collective natural hazard risk within a geographic area, specifically census tracts, and a breakdown for each of the 14 specific hazards. It also provides links to valuable information to guide actions large and small that can help families and regions reduce their risk of natural disasters and strengthen their response plans. Those recommendations could include reducing combustible materials around homes and businesses in fire-prone areas, or investing in more resilient infrastructure, which is often a harder sell because of the upfront costs.
NCDP first developed a version of the tool in 2016, but saw an opportunity to improve it with more precise and localized data at the census tract level. The original tool was limited by county-level map data, but the new version allows users to focus on more specific areas and see possible differences within counties — which can be important.
“When you can zoom down to the county level, you can gather more information,” Sury said.
For example, riverside communities may face very different flood risks than hillside communities. Alternatively, wildfire risk can vary greatly depending on where you are within the urban wildland interface, he explained, just as the heat index varies based on how far you are from water.
The design of the tool is very user-friendly. It presents information in an easy-to-understand manner that anyone can interact with and benefit from.
But Sury says the work is far from simple. NCDP had a rigorous process for building this tool, starting with identifying which hazards to include on the map. They conducted a literature review for each potential hazard and spoke with leading experts to gain their insights on the relevance of each risk and the best data and metrics to use for each hazard. They also worked with colleagues at the Columbia Climate Institute to balance the availability, reliability and granularity of the inputs they received with the data. The map incorporates terabytes of data, equivalent to terabytes of data.
The tool was developed in partnership with AllianceBernstein, a leading global investment management and research firm and long-standing supporter of Climate Schools. NCDP worked with AllianceBernstein investors for over a year to develop the tool by updating and refining the data set and identifying and adding new data. AllianceBernstein saw an opportunity to use the tool to analyze and better assess the various risks of its investments.
Patrick O’Connell, senior vice president and director of responsible investment research for fixed income at AllianceBernstein, said: “We see great potential in using this tool in our investment decisions – and it’s clear that this partnership can also empower communities across the country benefit.” .
O’Connell noted that strengthening infrastructure in the private sector could also have huge benefits for ordinary people, as protecting factories and businesses can prevent disruption to supply chains, services, products and jobs when disaster strikes.
“The private sector plays a vital role in disaster preparedness, response and recovery,” he said. “When companies and local jurisdictions invest in mitigation and preparedness, it is extremely valuable to all stakeholders.”
While the team is excited about rolling out this phase of the app, they are already thinking about the next iteration, which will incorporate climate change predictions and societal vulnerability. Much current data, such as hurricane data, is based on today’s climate and does not take climate change into account. The team hopes to integrate improved data in the future to show how climate change will affect natural hazards and disasters.
“We have very good baseline hazard information in these maps,” Sury said. “Now we want to do a better job of thinking about climate change projections and what kind of hazards will be present on a warming planet in the future.”
