Data Integration for Climate Vulnerability Mapping in West Africa

Abstract

Vulnerability mapping reveals areas that are likely to be at greater risk of climate-related disasters in the future. Through integration of climate, biophysical, and socioeconomic data in an overall vulnerability framework, so-called "hotspots" of vulnerability can be identified. These maps can be used as an aid to targeting adaptation and disaster risk management interventions. This paper reviews vulnerability mapping efforts in West Africa conducted under the USAID-funded African and Latin American Resilience to Climate Change (ARCC) project. The focus is on the integration of remotely sensed and socioeconomic data. Data inputs included a range of sensor data (e.g., MODIS NDVI, Landsat, SRTM elevation, DMSP-OLS night-time lights) as well as high-resolution poverty, conflict, and infrastructure data. Two basic methods were used, one in which each layer was transformed into standardized indicators in an additive approach, and another in which remote sensing data were used to contextualize the results of composite indicators. We assess the benefits and challenges of data integration, and the lessons learned from these mapping exercises.

Climate vulnerability mapping: A systematic review and future prospects

“…Fekete () notes common problems of socioeconomic data include measurement errors, biased samples, geographic gaps, missing values, infrequency of updates, data decay and appropriate normalization. To obtain more frequently updated socioeconomic parameters, there are growing efforts to use remotely‐sensed proxies for poverty, such as housing structure in slums (Ebert, Kerle, & Stein, ) or “nightlights poverty” (Davies, Midgley, & Chesterman, ), as well as for other parameters (de Sherbinin et al, ). None of the studies in our sample used other nontraditional data sources such as cell‐phone call detail records and recharge rates or geo‐located social media, though these data sources are showing increasing promise for mapping daily mobility patterns related to hazard exposure as well as vulnerability (Yu, Yang, & Li, ).…”

Vulnerabilidade às Ilhas de Calor no Município de São Paulo: Uma Abordagem para a Implantação de Medidas Mitigadoras na Gestão Urbana

“…No âmbito internacional é crescente o número de trabalhos que buscam avaliar a vulnerabilidade em ambientes urbanos (Wang, Pan, Ke, Wang & Wei, 2014) em diferentes contextos, escalas e riscos (de Sherbinin, Chai-Onn, Jaiteh, Mara, Pistolesi, Schnarr & Trzaska, 2015;Kumar, Geneletti, & Nagendra, 2016). Ainda, há trabalhos que desenvolvem índices visando avaliar a vulnerabilidade às ilhas de calor (Inostroza, Palme & de la Barrera, 2016;Wolf & McGregor, 2013).…”

Spatiotemporal Variation of Precipitation Regime in China from 1961 to 2014 from the Standardized Precipitation Index

“…Populations worldwide suffer from droughts and floods, which are considered the most widespread natural disasters in the world, causing extreme damage, but are difficult to predict [1][2][3]. Under a global warming scenario, droughts/floods will become even more serious problems [4].…”

“…2 To analyze the spatial distribution of dryness/wetness trends using the Mann-Kendall nonparametric correlation test; specifically, to detect intensity trends in dry and wet events in eight regions in China from 1961 to 2014 using the sequential Mann-Kendall trend test. 3 To explore possible SPI periodic changes in eight districts of China by wavelet analysis.…”