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The Connectivity Hub aims to help the climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) communities work together. SEI and partners are now taking steps to enhance this high-tech search-and-discovery tool so that it can better help people in these two related fields find potential synergies and communicate more effectively with one another.
As the impacts of climate change become more evident, adaptation and disaster risk are attracting more and more urgent attention. People across the world are searching for accurate, up-to-date information about ways to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and to take steps to limit the level of risk to climate-related disasters.
Though there is a vast amount of information online, most resources are fragmented. The situation only reinforces the prevailing absence of coordination and the tendency for people in one field to confine their work to a given silo, rather than interacting with people in other fields to gain new perspectives and insights, and to coordinate where possible.
How can people working on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction find the information they want – or information they may be unaware of but may find useful? How can they be sure that such information is up to date, accurate and applicable to their situation? How can they learn from one another’s work?
The Connectivity Hub, a unique search-and-discovery tool seeks to address these needs. The hub was designed to connect data and resources to address and solve part of this coordination and collaboration puzzle. Leveraging tools, such as taxonomies and knowledge graphs, the hub creates a shared understanding of language and terminology used across different domains and platforms – and a place for people who use this information to connect.
This video explains more about the tool and the ongoing work to advance its capabilities.
The Connectivity Hub, is part of the wider European Union project, the PLAtform for Climate Adaptation and Risk reduction (PLACARD), which aims to be the recognized platform for dialogue, knowledge exchange and collaboration between the climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) communities. The PLACARD interchange seeks to provide direction to research, policy and practices that can strengthen cooperation and counter fragmentation between these two related communities.
The Connectivity Hub is designed to provide a highly visual, interactive and comprehensive overview of potentially related issues addressed by these two research and practice communities. A search through the hub can:
The capacities of the Connectivity Hub are expanding through two new Horizon Europe projects:
The MAIA (Maximising impact and accessibility of European climate research) project is reviewing existing taxonomies and vocabularies focusing on climate change and disaster risk to explore how they can add value to one another and fill knowledge gaps. This will refine and expand the connections in the Hub, helping users to discover more information and organizations relevant to their work. MAIA is using a machine-learning approach to analyse selected EU project documents for keywords. This will help
The DIRECTED (Disaster resilience for extreme climate events through improved data accessibility, communication and risk governance) project is developing an open-source taxonomy informed by conversations with local stakeholders in real-world lab settings. Co-exploring local perceptions of risk and governance will provide useful insights into the types of terminology used to describe risk and resilience as well as the perspectives arising across different locations and contexts.
MAIA and DIRECTED will also provide opportunities to test the accuracy and usability of the MAIA taxonomy. Once the taxonomy has been further developed and its scope narrowed, expert consultations will be undertaken to ensure that the terminology and semantic relationships are accurate. The clarity of terms and their definitions will also be tested with stakeholders in the real-world labs. These tests will help maximize the widespread applicability of the taxonomy.
“The increasing ability to harness data and to repurpose it in innovative, visually powerful ways provides new avenues for learning from existing initiatives, and for accelerating the bridging of science to action”, said SEI Senior Research Fellow Sukaina Bharwani, who leads the project.
Want to know more about the basics? Watch this video from its original launch.
Project / MAIA is an EU Horizon Europe project that seeks to expand the impact and uptake of European climate research.
Project / The EU Horizon project DIRECTED aims to improve the governance and management of climate disasters across multiple civil society and emergency agencies.
Perspective / Taxonomy not only helps us sort through information – it also helps us make sense of complex topics and grapple with differences in our understanding.
Design and development by Soapbox.
