AI and Next Level Data Visualizations Can Change the Way We Respond to Natural Disasters
The frequency and severity of natural disasters has been on the rise due to climate change. A few key statistics quantifying the impact of natural disasters include:
- 200 million people around the globe impacted every year
- 1.23 million lives claimed worldwide since the start of the 21st century
- An estimated $3 trillion in economic losses over the past 20 years
- A 75 percent increase in natural disasters between 2000 and 2019 compared to the previous 20 years
In the United States, Congress is currently considering the American Jobs Plan in response to increased climate risks and the need for infrastructure improvements. Much of the plan — including updates to the electric grid and modernizing 20,000 miles of highways and bridges — will support community resilience against floods, wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other extreme weather events. Furthermore, FEMA will receive twice as much funding in 2021 to respond to the damage wrought by climate change and curb it.
As hurricane season looms, FEMA funding doubles to prepare for extreme weather.
While we make physical improvements to our infrastructure, we also need to invest in AI and machine learning technologies to better prepare for, respond to, and recover from more frequent, severe disasters of the 21st century.
“We call for the development of agile, rapidly deployable analytical capabilities that can inform policy planning with a more complete view of the risks, both social and environmental.”
— excerpt from Columbia Climate School article
To take analytical capabilities to the next level, we have reimagined what the future of data-driven resilience tools might look like in the next 5 years and how we can use intelligent, intuitive applications to improve resilience.
Natural Disaster Command Center
Enter the Natural Disaster Command Center — a bleeding-edge exploration of disaster resilience that envisions how the future of AI-powered applications can provide insights, including:
- Predicting where and when an event might occur
- Visualizing overall risk and impact across industries and sectors
- Delivering real-time data to those on the frontlines to improve humanitarian assistance
- Bringing together disparate data from sensors, satellites, and cities to provide context and better inform decisions
The Natural Disaster Command Center (NDCC) offers a suggestion for what the future of disaster resilience could be. It shows how data science and visualization could come together to support resilience experts, first responders, and local officials as they explore multiple metrics, indicators, and scenarios at a hyper-local scale within a single application.
Visualizing natural disaster risk and impact within a single tool would streamline workflows and increase speed to insight. A tool like this would also support a more holistic view of dynamic situations, which is especially important as communities face increasingly complex threats that occur simultaneously and exacerbate safety or health issues.
For example, 2020 saw the interplay between the COVID-19 outbreak and hurricane season. This compound disaster required local and federal government and first responders to plan hurricane evacuation routes and shelters, while also navigating supply chain disruptions and maintaining social distancing requirements.
The Opportunity
The Natural Disaster Command Center conceptualizes how the next generation of data science and AI tools can empower cities and first responders to save lives, protect critical infrastructure and services, safeguard resources, and defend communities.
Today, we are already seeing how data-driven tools can greatly enhance disaster response. Through our risk and resilience work for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its agencies, for example, RS21 is building upon analytical capabilities to inform recovery decisions, resource allocations, and emergency actions. This includes charting where a hurricane will make landfall, for instance, and visualizing resulting flood scenarios and critical systems that fall within the geographic area.
Right now, we’re also working in partnership with Booz Allen to provide subject matter expertise to a DHS emergency response mission — collecting and analyzing data to identify and improve critical emergency communications gaps nationwide.
What role can data science play in how we respond to disasters?
Robust analytical capabilities can simplify processes, give greater context, and empower analysts and officials to make better, faster, smarter decisions together. Pairing AI and machine learning capabilities with intuitive visualizations, data engineering, and modern software development can support natural disaster response in the following ways:
- Improving forecasts and gathering real-time data from the field to improve response and frontline efforts using artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques.
- Visualizing complex information in intuitive, interactive applications that yield actionable insights.
- Standardizing and automating data collection and management to shift people’s valuable time away from data collection and preparation and toward data analysis, communication, and decision-making.
- Creating customized, web-based analysis and communication applications for analysts and risk mitigation partners to effectively and efficiently access information and collaborate.
- Accessing historical data and knowledge across documents to extract lessons learned and drive better action and response.
- Integrating with existing systems and models to accelerate product development and deployment.
To meet the challenges facing us in the 21st century, we need innovative applications that will provide a complete view of the best available data. The Natural Disaster Command Center provides a conceptual framework for the future of disaster resilience and what we can achieve this decade with innovative data science and AI solutions and exceptional visualizations.
💡 Want more articles like this? Data science and AI are key to helping cities, states, and governments respond to and recover from natural disasters. Read more about how technology is helping solve some of our toughest challenges by subscribing to RS21 Insights.
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About RS21
RS21 is a rapidly growing, global data science company that uses artificial intelligence, design, and modern software development methods to empower organizations to make data-driven decisions that positively impact the world. Our innovative solutions are insightful, intuitive, inspiring, and intellectually honest. With offices in Albuquerque, NM and Washington, DC, RS21 is an Inc. 500 fastest-growing company and a Fast Company Best Workplace for Innovators.
We navigate complex data issues in the fields of infrastructure resilience, healthcare, disaster preparedness, supply chain management, community safety, and security and cybersecurity. For more information, visit www.rs21.io.
