Big data for resilience: realising the benefits for developing countries

'Big data' is defined as 'an ecosystem made up of the combination of three factors: digital data from sources as diverse as satellites and mobile phones; the capacity to analyse and use that data, and the people who produce, analyse, and/or use the data. The concept of big data goes well beyond the datasets themselves, regardless of their size.' (Data-Pop Alliance, 2015).
Under the SHEAR Programme, DFID, NERC and ESRC funded eleven case studies and pilots to explore the links between big data and resilience.
A synthesis report, combining an extensive review and analysis of the available academic and policy literature and the findings from the eleven studies, was funded by DFID. The synthesis report was developed by a team of researchers under the umbrella of Data-Pop Alliance of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), MIT Media Lab, and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).
Big data synthesis report
The synthesis report sheds light on this rapidly changing area by highlighting the growing body of empirical work that explores ways in which big data has been used to increase resilience. The report explores the opportunities, challenges and required steps for leveraging this new ecosystem of big data to monitor and detect hazards, mitigate their effects, and assist in relief efforts.
Case studies
Four themes emerged in the eleven case studies and pilot projects that DFID with NERC and ESRC commissioned to explore the links between big data and resilience.
Building resilience through crowdsourcing
- Early flood detection for rapid humanitarian response: harnessing big data from near-real-time satellite and Twitter signals (Jongman et al.).
- Increasing resilience to natural hazards through crowdsourcing in St Vincent and the Grenadines (Mee and Duncan).
- Inclusiveness in crowdsourced disaster response (INCROWD) (Roth and Luczak-Roesch)
Using mobile network data to understand actions, behaviours, and attitudes
- Mobile network data and climate resilience: analysis of Cyclone Mahasen in Bangladesh using de-identified data of five million phones in the Grameen phone network (Bengtsson et al.).
- Big data for flood resilience in East Africa (Iliffe et al.).
- Leveraging mobile network big data for disaster risk reduction: minimising harms and facilitating access (Samarajiva and Lokanathan).
Improved statistical methods for defining disaster risk
- Landslide susceptibility mapping in data-poor environments (Cheng).
- Big data for tsunami hazard warnings in India (Guillas).
Big data and communication technologies for awareness raising and disaster relief and recovery
- Mobile-based disaster risk monitoring system: an innovative approach to enhance community-led disaster preparedness in Uganda (Kiragga et al.).
- The potential of big data to encourage long-term and preventative disaster risk reduction behaviours: evidence from Cochabamba, Bolivia (Sou).
- Big data in disease disaster management in developing countries: a mobile phone data-use framework (Cinnamon et al.).
Project resources
Synthesis report: Big data for climate change and disaster resilience: Realising the benefits for developing countries
Videos
- Emmanuel Letouzé on Big Data for Climate Change & Disaster Resilience featuring Emmanuel Letouzé, Director of Data-Pop Alliance
- Big Data for Climate Change and Disaster Resilience: Two Experts on their Work with Linus Bengtsson, Executive Director of Flowminder Foundation; and Bessie Schwarz, a Data-Pop Research Affiliate and founder of Cloud to Street
- Big Data for Climate Change and Disaster Resilience: Who Needs to Get Involved to Tap its Potential? featuring Emmanuel Letouzé, Director of Data-Pop Alliance; Bessie Schwarz, a Data-Pop Research Affiliate; and Linus Bengtsson, Executive Director of Flowminder Foundation
Podcasts
- Data Breadcrumbs, Who Should Get involved, and Kobo Toolbox with Patrick Vinck, Assistant Professor at Harvard University, Director of HHI's program for Vulnerable Populations, Co-Director and Co-Founder of Data-Pop Alliance
- Participatory Geography, Flood Mapping, & Private Enterprise vs. Government Action with Mark Iliffe, Research Fellow at University of Nottingham and author of 'Big Data for Flood Resilience in East Africa'
- Navigating a Heterogeneous Data Landscape and Legislating for Big Data with Markus Luczak-Roesch, Computer Scientist at University of Southampton and author of 'Inclusiveness in Crowdsourced Disaster Response (INCROWD)'
- "Democratic Data," Crowdsourcing, and Opportunities and Pitfalls of Big Data with Marion Dumas, PhD in Sustainable Development, Columbia University, Research Affiliate, Data-Pop Alliance
- CPDN, Climate Modeling, and Extreme Weather Events with Friederike Otto & Mamun Rashid of CPDN, Oxford e-Research Centre
- Crowdsourcing, Digital Inequalities, and Combining Cultural Knowledge with Big Data with Silke Roth, sociologist at University of Southampton and author of Inclusiveness in Crowdsourced Disaster Response (INCROWD)
- Tsunami Hazard Systems in India, Local Action, & Uncertainties with Serge Guillas, Reader at Department of Statistical Science, University College London and author of 'Big Data for Tsunami Hazard Warnings in India'