Managing Climate Risk in the Cloud

Frank Rijsberman, Ph.D.

Program Director Google.org

Innovating for Good @ Google

• 1% equity and profit + employee time • Themes o Access to Information o o Global health and poverty Clean Energy • Google.org

o Build new tools and platforms o Inform discussion, advocate policies

“In the next decades climate-related disasters could cost US$300 billion per year”

--CEPAL, 2002; Swiss Re, 2002 .

Vulnerability is

inability to cope

with change

Climate Change Impacting People Today

Based on WHO study

Information Scarcity Increases Climate Change Vulnerability Flood Risk Infectious Disease Food Security Drought

Addressing Information Scarcity

• • • Acquiring information – satellites, sensor networks, cloud computing Disseminating information – mobile phones, social networks Enabling Action – monitoring systems, x platform communication

Avoided Deforestation Earth Engine powered by Google

•

Earth Engine powered by Google

Show video

Earth Engine 2870744_GEStalt_video_07_no black-yt30.mov

Earth Engine Demo, Powered by Google at COP15 Seeing the Forest through the Cloud The technology platform will: Increase speed. Running these algorithms today on all of the Amazon, on currently available desktop computers, can take days or weeks. On Google infrastructure this could potentially be reduced to seconds.

Lower cost and complexity. Google hosts all of the required data and software "in the cloud," saving users from having to manage large-scale storage and computation resources.

Facilitate transparency and security. Users control access to their data and results, with the option to keep them private. Because the data, analysis and results reside online, they can also be easily shared and independently verified.

Support climate change policy. This technology could be used for forest monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) in support of efforts such as REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation).

Not only satellite imagery – community surveillance as well

What would it take to create:

A global network of citizens who monitor Earth's resources and life supporting systems

Environment as Early Warning

for infectious disease

Jones et al. 2008 • Environment/climate-Sensitive diseases include: • Malaria Japanese encephalitis • Rift Valley Fever • West Nile Virus •Yellow Fever •Meningitis •Dengue •Cholera

Climate and Environment Information - Provide Early Warning of Disease Rift Valley Fever outbreak, Kenya, 2006/7, >300 people died

Response Risk factor Cases

Heavy Rains 19 Oct Mosquito Swarms Livestock Cases Human Cases First medical intervention First Veterinary Intervention 17 Nov 11 Dec 30 Oct 30 Nov 14 Jan GEIS EARLY WARNING OUT EMPRES WARNING TO GOV’TS WHO DECLARED HUMAN INDEX CASE

Open Data Kit

http://code.google.com/p/open-data-kit

Open-source data collection tool kit Cooperative project with UWashington (Gaetano Borriello) Based on Android-G1/AppEngine Deployment in Kenya for 300 health workers in HIV-Aids (AMPATH) treatment and prevent program Xforms (JavaROSA) +Location, +Photos Back-end Database Initially targeting public health Empower others to customize tools

Information Technology support for Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance Network Enhancing Access to information to help identify vulnerabilities , provide early warning, and enable a rapid response

Weather Info for All

• Put automated weather stations on GSM towers • 19 stations East Africa by mid ’10; 500 thereafter • Global Humanitarian Forum, WMO, Ericson, Zain, Earth Institute • See video:

YouTube: weather info for all

Weather report coverage

Reporting water outages: SMS feedback from consumers on service quality experiment in Zanzibar

Reoptimization of Dam Operations

  To release a flow pattern that more closely mimics the natural variability in flows.

By converting dams to “run-of-the-river” operations to re-create controlled flood events 

By reoperating the entire water management system - not just the storage component.



To adapt to hydrologic perturbations associated with climate change

Akosombo Dam

•Completed in 1965 •Height = 134 meters •Created Lake Volta, the

largest reservoir in the world

•Power Output = 912 MW

Today, dams must be reoptimized for other benefits: environmental performance and livelihoods.

How to construct operational models to evaluate a range of scenarios to generate environmental flows?

    How to relate flow patterns to dam releases?

How to deal with variable hydrology — change including future climate How to make all releases power releases How to deal with constraints and limitations i.

ii.

Capacity of release works Power demands iii.

iv.

Transmission capacities Navigation v. Effects on potential for lake perimeter agriculture

Proposed GEF dam re-operation project – www.N-H-I.org

Google Crisis Response: use of imagery Cyclone Nargis Hits Myanmar

Google Map Maker for a cause…disaster relief

Situation: Cyclone Nargis strikes Myanmar

Before After

1 week

Show Video

Google Map Maker time lapse video Kottayam, Kerala

Example: Typhoon Ketsana, Philippines Contains:

• Map • Video news clips • Donation sites/charities • Google news

Ongoing:

•Sourcing aerial imagery • Adding developing information

Data file with all the roads, POIs and businesses in Africa added in Google Map Maker Intended for use by...

• Non-profit entities • Government agencies • Individuals with non commercial intent

UNOSAT – Mapping Flooded areas

West Africa flooding, Sep 09 Typhoon Ketsana, Oct 09

Available soon: Airborne affordable versatile hi res imagery from a small plane

WB Development Indicators in Google Search

What to do with all this information?

Most pressing constraints are not data or technology related but rather institutional, cultural, economic.

Addressing information scarcity is one component of capacity to adapt or respond.

Building Institutional Bridges: Climate and Health Working Groups in Africa

Ethiopia CHWG Sep 2008 Summer Institute ‘ Jun 08 Kenya CHWG Dec 08

Madagascar CHWG Oct 08 International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Earth Institute

Social Networks

who is doing what, where?

Most adaptation will be learned from what others are doing.

www.weADAPT.org

. Prototype developed by BCAS, ICCAD, IIED, OSS, START, UCT and others.

Summary

• Climate adaptation increasingly at the core of development and poverty alleviation •

Information scarcity

key challenge in managing climate risk • Information technology can play an important role in addressing the

information scarcity

problem.

Thanks!

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