ddressing climate change, and the enormous impacts it has on the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in Asia and the Pacific, is a defining challenge for our global community. As vulnerable populations rally to meet their specific climate challenges, we are only beginning to uncover the critical importance of data-driven insights in boosting preparedness, mitigating loss, and maximizing limited resources.
For example, emerging economies in Southeast Asia bear the brunt of climate change impact. Major regional cities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Yangon, and Bangkok are vulnerable to rising sea levels, while alternating waves of punishing drought and fierce monsoons are projected to disrupt agriculture and displace populations.
In each of these cases, data can be a powerful tool—but only for those who can access it. Despite agreement that decisions must be made in a data-driven manner, accessibility, and efforts to promote data literacy in the region for those groups working on the frontlines, remains surprisingly limited.
In response, multilateral organizations like the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have committed resources to helping policymakers and communities gain better insights from data. Below are some key takeaways on how to foster cooperation between the public and private sectors to democratize access to data insights.
Galvanizing community action through data access
When useful climate data is shared, local leaders can apply relevant insights to their communities and develop much more meaningful and targeted climate mitigation initiatives. While data sharing is widely understood as a powerful tool for governments and businesses to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, we still see gaps at the community level. It’s vital we work proactively to make large stores of valuable data available not only at the highest levels, but also to those driving change on the frontlines.
We have seen the impact we can make when we connect better data to local efforts. For example, TerraPulse’s maps of current and historical forest cover are helping countries participate in emerging carbon markets. TerraPulse provided maps of historical forest cover and change to the Philippines and the Dominican Republic to serve as baselines of forest activity, information necessary for registering the countries’ carbon in regulated markets. The TerraPulse platform is a solution for scientists, businesses, and governments to monitor and analyze Earth’s surface, and leverages open satellite imagery hosted on the Registry of Open Data on Amazon Web Services.
More can also be done to support local applications which are making use of data for targeted engagement. A good example of a firm that makes use of data to develop targeted approaches to climate action is Recity, which operates a Waste Intelligence platform to monitor and manage flows of plastic waste, while providing dignified employment and training to thousands of waste workers.
In these ways, accessible data has been localized and made usable in the battle against climate change by local companies and individuals. However, it is important to understand that in many of these situations, it is not access to raw data, but access to the insights, observations, and recommendations that come from it that has been most impactful.
Leveraging the cloud to drive data accessibility
As cloud services become more widespread and connectivity improves, there is a clear opportunity to make larger processing workloads and quantities of relevant data available to more remote parts of the world.
Cloud technology can also play a role in minimizing financial costs associated with acquiring and analyzing large sustainability datasets. For example, the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI) works with global scientific organizations and governments including in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia to host key datasets on the cloud for public use with the aim of accelerating sustainability research.
Data driven insights can also be instrumental with the use of cloud technology to support climate change initiatives. For example, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) launched ReefCloud to aid marine scientists and conservationists in assessing the condition of their reefs and taking fast action.
ADB is investing in its Spatial Data Analysis Explorer (SPADE) GIS platform, a knowledge-focused pilot project which uses data from ADB activities to gain insights for users to access. Funded by the Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund, SPADE aims to ensure that this shared data can serve as the nucleus for more complex and localized data communication initiatives, which can support communities and generate greater impact.
Applications like those pioneered by groups like Recity would be one of many promising candidates that can be integrated into the platform.
Data democratization key to new, untapped partnerships
Modern climate challenges have taught us that our usual approaches are not as effective as they once were. We must rethink the way we share and use data; the battle against climate change is too great for one country or one region to win alone. There is also a passionate and relatively untapped group of young entrepreneurs hungry to make the world more connected and tackle climate change issues.
We should not lose this energy; rather, we must find ways to empower and equip such players to scale local solutions at the community level. Democratization of data will be the key to our collective success. Leaders must remove barriers and expand networks to ensure vital information is accessible as possible, to as many as possible.
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Democratizing Data Access to Accelerate Efforts on Climate Change
Mount Rinjani, Indonesia. Photo by Aaron Thomas via Unsplash.
December 7, 2022
Addressing climate change, and the enormous impacts it has on the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in Asia and the Pacific, is a defining challenge for our global community. Democratization of data will be the key to our collective success write Ken Haig and Stephen Peters.
A
ddressing climate change, and the enormous impacts it has on the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in Asia and the Pacific, is a defining challenge for our global community. As vulnerable populations rally to meet their specific climate challenges, we are only beginning to uncover the critical importance of data-driven insights in boosting preparedness, mitigating loss, and maximizing limited resources.
For example, emerging economies in Southeast Asia bear the brunt of climate change impact. Major regional cities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Yangon, and Bangkok are vulnerable to rising sea levels, while alternating waves of punishing drought and fierce monsoons are projected to disrupt agriculture and displace populations.
In each of these cases, data can be a powerful tool—but only for those who can access it. Despite agreement that decisions must be made in a data-driven manner, accessibility, and efforts to promote data literacy in the region for those groups working on the frontlines, remains surprisingly limited.
In response, multilateral organizations like the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have committed resources to helping policymakers and communities gain better insights from data. Below are some key takeaways on how to foster cooperation between the public and private sectors to democratize access to data insights.
Galvanizing community action through data access
When useful climate data is shared, local leaders can apply relevant insights to their communities and develop much more meaningful and targeted climate mitigation initiatives. While data sharing is widely understood as a powerful tool for governments and businesses to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, we still see gaps at the community level. It’s vital we work proactively to make large stores of valuable data available not only at the highest levels, but also to those driving change on the frontlines.
We have seen the impact we can make when we connect better data to local efforts. For example, TerraPulse’s maps of current and historical forest cover are helping countries participate in emerging carbon markets. TerraPulse provided maps of historical forest cover and change to the Philippines and the Dominican Republic to serve as baselines of forest activity, information necessary for registering the countries’ carbon in regulated markets. The TerraPulse platform is a solution for scientists, businesses, and governments to monitor and analyze Earth’s surface, and leverages open satellite imagery hosted on the Registry of Open Data on Amazon Web Services.
More can also be done to support local applications which are making use of data for targeted engagement. A good example of a firm that makes use of data to develop targeted approaches to climate action is Recity, which operates a Waste Intelligence platform to monitor and manage flows of plastic waste, while providing dignified employment and training to thousands of waste workers.
In these ways, accessible data has been localized and made usable in the battle against climate change by local companies and individuals. However, it is important to understand that in many of these situations, it is not access to raw data, but access to the insights, observations, and recommendations that come from it that has been most impactful.
Leveraging the cloud to drive data accessibility
As cloud services become more widespread and connectivity improves, there is a clear opportunity to make larger processing workloads and quantities of relevant data available to more remote parts of the world.
Cloud technology can also play a role in minimizing financial costs associated with acquiring and analyzing large sustainability datasets. For example, the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI) works with global scientific organizations and governments including in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia to host key datasets on the cloud for public use with the aim of accelerating sustainability research.
Data driven insights can also be instrumental with the use of cloud technology to support climate change initiatives. For example, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) launched ReefCloud to aid marine scientists and conservationists in assessing the condition of their reefs and taking fast action.
ADB is investing in its Spatial Data Analysis Explorer (SPADE) GIS platform, a knowledge-focused pilot project which uses data from ADB activities to gain insights for users to access. Funded by the Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund, SPADE aims to ensure that this shared data can serve as the nucleus for more complex and localized data communication initiatives, which can support communities and generate greater impact.
Applications like those pioneered by groups like Recity would be one of many promising candidates that can be integrated into the platform.
Data democratization key to new, untapped partnerships
Modern climate challenges have taught us that our usual approaches are not as effective as they once were. We must rethink the way we share and use data; the battle against climate change is too great for one country or one region to win alone. There is also a passionate and relatively untapped group of young entrepreneurs hungry to make the world more connected and tackle climate change issues.
We should not lose this energy; rather, we must find ways to empower and equip such players to scale local solutions at the community level. Democratization of data will be the key to our collective success. Leaders must remove barriers and expand networks to ensure vital information is accessible as possible, to as many as possible.
