Waterproofing Data: engaging stakeholders in the sustainable governance of flood risks for urban resilience
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Social & Political Sciences
Abstract
Waterproofing Data investigates the governance of water-related risks, with a focus on social and cultural aspects of data practices. Typically, data flows up from local levels to scientific "centres of expertise", and then flood-related alerts and interventions flow back down through local governments and into communities. Rethinking how flood-related data is produced, and how it flows, can help build sustainable, flood resilient communities.
To this end, this project develops three innovative methods around data practices, across different sites and scales: 1) we will make visible existing flows of flood-related data through tracing data; 2) generate new types of data at the local level by engaging citizens through the creation of multi-modal interfaces, which sense, collect and communicate flood data, and; 3) integrate citizen-generated data with other data using geo-computational techniques. These methodological interventions will transform how flood-related data is produced and flows, creating new governance arrangements between citizens, governments and flood experts and, ultimately, increased community resilience related to floods in vulnerable communities of Sao Paulo and Acre, Brazil.
The project will be conducted by a highly skilled international team of researchers with multiple disciplinary backgrounds from Brazil, Germany and the UK, in close partnership with researchers, stakeholders and publics of a multi-site case study on flood risk management in Brazil. Furthermore, the methods and results of this case study will be the basis for a transcultural dialogue with government organisations and local administration involved in flood risk management in Germany and the United Kingdom.
To this end, this project develops three innovative methods around data practices, across different sites and scales: 1) we will make visible existing flows of flood-related data through tracing data; 2) generate new types of data at the local level by engaging citizens through the creation of multi-modal interfaces, which sense, collect and communicate flood data, and; 3) integrate citizen-generated data with other data using geo-computational techniques. These methodological interventions will transform how flood-related data is produced and flows, creating new governance arrangements between citizens, governments and flood experts and, ultimately, increased community resilience related to floods in vulnerable communities of Sao Paulo and Acre, Brazil.
The project will be conducted by a highly skilled international team of researchers with multiple disciplinary backgrounds from Brazil, Germany and the UK, in close partnership with researchers, stakeholders and publics of a multi-site case study on flood risk management in Brazil. Furthermore, the methods and results of this case study will be the basis for a transcultural dialogue with government organisations and local administration involved in flood risk management in Germany and the United Kingdom.
Planned Impact
Scientific communities: The results of WP1, WP2 and WP3 will produce each one journal article or refereed paper in conference proceedings for the corresponding scientific communities (i.e. interdisciplinary data studies/science and technology studies, interdisciplinary media studies, applied geography/geographic information science) spearheaded by WP leads. Furthermore, the PI will lead on an article to publish project results in a high-impact multidisciplinary journal.
General audience: A website and social media presence will be created for the project. It will serve as an entry point to all products and publications achieved. It will also feature a news blog updated at least quarterly about activities and results of the project. We will also produce a quarterly project newsletter to be posted in the website and sent to the identified stakeholders.
Decision and policy makers on flood risk management in Sao Paulo and Acre: In the first months of the project, a comprehensive policy and stakeholder analysis will be made by means of interviews with key stakeholders in Brazil. The goal will be to produce a policy analysis document that will be reviewed by the Steering Committee and feed into the dissemination and work plan. This will include governmental agencies, academic and non-academic research organisations, NGOs and grassroots organisations involved in flood risk management in Brazil. This contact list will be updated throughout the project. They will also be invited to take part in two policy and practice impact workshops described in WP5. A policy briefing summarising the main results and lessons learned will be distributed in the final event.
Decision and policy makers on flood risk management in Brazil and Latin America: This extended list will include stakeholders from other states of Brazil and neighbouring Latin American Countries. They will be invited to the final impact workshop in Sao Paulo.
International/European stakeholders: WP5 will enable a transcultural dialogue that will allow us to disseminate and translate results and knowledge beyond Brazil/Latin America to the wider European and international communities. This will consist of two policy and practice workshops in the UK and Germany as further described in WP5.
Knowledge utilisation: key stakeholders of the states of Sao Paulo and Acre are directly involved in the project activities: local communities in Sao Paulo and Acre, Sao Paulo City Council, Government of Acre, CEMADEN, CPRM. They will directly benefit from capacity building during the research and co-production of research outputs. Furthermore, the project's legacy includes raised awareness of flood risks and management procedures in the communities, a prototype visualisation interface for local decision makers in the city level, an interface of citizen-generated data that will be made available to the monitoring systems of CEMADEN.
General audience: A website and social media presence will be created for the project. It will serve as an entry point to all products and publications achieved. It will also feature a news blog updated at least quarterly about activities and results of the project. We will also produce a quarterly project newsletter to be posted in the website and sent to the identified stakeholders.
Decision and policy makers on flood risk management in Sao Paulo and Acre: In the first months of the project, a comprehensive policy and stakeholder analysis will be made by means of interviews with key stakeholders in Brazil. The goal will be to produce a policy analysis document that will be reviewed by the Steering Committee and feed into the dissemination and work plan. This will include governmental agencies, academic and non-academic research organisations, NGOs and grassroots organisations involved in flood risk management in Brazil. This contact list will be updated throughout the project. They will also be invited to take part in two policy and practice impact workshops described in WP5. A policy briefing summarising the main results and lessons learned will be distributed in the final event.
Decision and policy makers on flood risk management in Brazil and Latin America: This extended list will include stakeholders from other states of Brazil and neighbouring Latin American Countries. They will be invited to the final impact workshop in Sao Paulo.
International/European stakeholders: WP5 will enable a transcultural dialogue that will allow us to disseminate and translate results and knowledge beyond Brazil/Latin America to the wider European and international communities. This will consist of two policy and practice workshops in the UK and Germany as further described in WP5.
Knowledge utilisation: key stakeholders of the states of Sao Paulo and Acre are directly involved in the project activities: local communities in Sao Paulo and Acre, Sao Paulo City Council, Government of Acre, CEMADEN, CPRM. They will directly benefit from capacity building during the research and co-production of research outputs. Furthermore, the project's legacy includes raised awareness of flood risks and management procedures in the communities, a prototype visualisation interface for local decision makers in the city level, an interface of citizen-generated data that will be made available to the monitoring systems of CEMADEN.
Organisations
Publications
Calvillo N
(2022)
From Extreme Weather Events to 'Cascading Vulnerabilities': Participatory Flood Research Methodologies in Brazil During COVID-19
in Journal of Extreme Events
Degrossi, L.C.
(2022)
Guia de Aprendizagem Dados à Prova d'Água
Grajales, D.P.
(2022)
Automated Data-Ops for Community-Driven Flood Monitoring
Grajales, D.P.
(2022)
Enabling Participatory Flood Monitoring Through Cloud Services
Lima-Silva F
(2022)
Vulnerabilidade(s) e ação pública : concepções, casos e desafios
Lima-Silva, F.
(2022)
Vulnerabilidade(s) e Ação Pública: concepções, casos e desafios
Marchezini V
(2022)
Flood risk governance in Brazil and the UK: facilitating knowledge exchange through research gaps and the potential of citizen-generated data
in Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal
Matsuo, P. M
(2021)
Levantando a lebre da redução de riscos de desastres: aprendizagens da campanha #AprenderParaPrevenir
in Revista Humanidades e Inovações.
| Description | Improving the resilience of cities to floods and other natural hazards has been recognised as a requirement for sustainable urban development in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 of the United Nations. In alignment with this goal, the Waterproofing Data project was aimed to contribute to sustainable transformations, with a particular focus on vulnerable communities in Brazil where floods have been increasingly frequent and have had significant impacts. In Brazil, 8.3 million people are estimated to live in areas which are vulnerable to rainfall-related disaster risks (Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics/IBGE, 2018). There are approximately 43000 areas in 1000 different municipalities spread across the whole continental territory of Brazil, which have been identified to host vulnerable communities at risk of severe landslides and floods. Improving the capacity of these communities to cope with flood risks can make a significant contribution towards the SDG 11 and SDG 13 targets of making cities more resilient to extreme weather events by reducing the number of deaths and the number of people affected by water-related disasters, with a focus on protecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations. The benefits of better early-warning and effective community-based risk reduction programmes could save human lives and mitigate the significant economic impact of disasters, which are estimated by the World Bank to have caused R$ 336 billion losses (£48 billion) in Brazil from 1995 to 2019. Waterproofing Data has investigated the governance of water-related risks, with a focus on social and cultural aspects of data practices. Typically, data flows up from local levels to scientific 'centres of expertise', and then flood-related alerts and interventions flow back down through local governments and into communities. Rethinking how flood-related data is produced, and how it flows, can help build sustainable, flood resilient communities. To this end, we have aimed at developing a range of innovative methods around data practices, across different sites and scales. These methods are related to three core objectives: 1. Making visible existing flows of flood-related data through tracing data across multiple scales. 2. Generating new types of data at the local level by engaging citizens through the creation of multimodal interfaces, which sense, collect and communicate flood data. 3. Integrating citizen-generated data with other data using geo- computational techniques. The development of this new methods has so far achieved three emerging findings for which of the key objectives, which we summarise below. 1. Making visible existing flows of flood-related data through tracing data across multiple scales Our project has made a methodological contribution to the social study of data and specifically to critical data studies, by proposing an adaptation to the ethnographic medium of the diary to develop a method for studying data and related data practices called "data diaries" (Tkacz et al. 2021). By applying this method to understand the data practices within the situation room of the Brazil's National Disaster Monitoring and Early Warning Centre, "data diaries" is an innovative method which we have shown to have three specific affordances. First, data diaries make informality visible, allowing us to consider data in their everydayness; as participating in practices, grammars and idioms that are highly specific and resist formalisation. Second, the data diary enables researchers to understand how data "intervene" on a number of levels, from the constitutions of the data space as such, to the configuration of the interface and the unfolding of situations. Third, the production of the diary is an inter- and transdisciplinary knowledge co-production endeavour, which means that the diary as a process offers space of cross-border knowledge creation through ongoing dialogue and through the presentation of the diary at various stages as a work in progress. 2. Generating new types of data at the local level by engaging citizens through the creation of multimodal interfaces, which sense, collect and communicate flood data. Within this objective, we co-produced a new method for engaging populations living in vulnerable urban communities with transformative data generation, which we call 'data gardening'. This method addresses the challenge of simultaneously promoting high-quality data generation and community engagement. It has been developed through empirical investigation of flood-prone communities in impoverished neighbourhoods of the city of São Paulo in Brazil from 2019 to 2022 and is aimed at transformative data production, i.e., it leverages the generation of data by citizens as a pathway to sustainability transformations. For doing so, we developed a new theoretical framework for approaching citizen science and citizen data generation from the lens of the critical pedagogy of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (Porto de Albuquerque and Almeida, 2020). In doing so, the "data gardening" method innovates in two main directions. First, the data gardening method provides a methodological approach to data-driven citizen science projects with an explicit focus on social transformation based on Freire's critical pedagogy, serving as a guide for researchers and practitioners in this field. Second, our application of the data gardening method to provide evidence on the need for an expanded perspective on the role of data within sustainability transformation processes (Porto de Albuquerque et al., 2021). Our results have shown that data can acquire transformative functions in data generation, and these functions should be explicitly leveraged and considered when carrying out citizen science projects, particularly in the South. As such, these results provide important guidance for future citizen science projects to move towards empowering data imaginaries and theories of change which are grounded in the realities of the South and co-constructed with the people living in conditions of oppression and vulnerability. 3. Integrating citizen-generated data with other data using geo-computational techniques. Within this objective, the Waterproofing Data international consortium developed an innovative methodological approach for combining community data generation and geographic data analytics to improve the resilience of communities vulnerable to extreme weather events such as floods. It consists of a digital hub platform ("data lake"), a citizen-science mobile app and a model curriculum for engaging schools and local communities in citizen science activities. Students and volunteer community members learn concepts about flooding risk, vulnerability and resilience, and act as citizen scientists by generating and analysing data about their own neighbourhoods. They learn how to construct low-cost rain gauges and record the daily rainfall, which they send via our mobile app to our partners Brazil's national agency for flood early-warning, CEMADEN. They also record flooding events in the app, as well as their impacts on the neighbourhood. The citizen-generated data is integrated with official data (e.g., from sensors and satellites) in the data lake, and the flood monitoring agency uses these integrated data to develop better flood early-warning and risk models, thereby improving the accuracy of future flood warnings. This approach addresses the major data gaps that exist around the world about the local impacts of extreme weather events to vulnerable communities. This lack of information currently undermines the establishment of effective strategies for improving resilience, including better early-warning systems and community-based risk reduction. The Waterproofing Data approach innovates by combining citizen engagement and advanced urban data analytics. It goes beyond existing citizen science approaches by being grounded in promoting learning about climate change impacts in the schools and vulnerable communities, whilst at the same time generating invaluable data for flood risk management. The fact that these flood data are community-generated means they have even greater impacts than improving flood warnings. Students and community members are empowered by acting as citizen scientists, contributing data to the national flood early-warning system. And by observing the correlations between rainfall intensity and flood events, they gain a critical awareness and deeper understanding of flood risk in their communities. By closing current data and knowledge gaps about the most vulnerable and impoverished, our research has shown how to democratise the generation and usage of data to groups which are frequently excluded from policy and decision making in climate adaptation (e.g., informal settlements), improving fairness and equity of adaptation planning and implementation. |
| Exploitation Route | The main outcomes of this project were: - Created a better understanding of social and cultural aspects of flood risk data, which can be used by stakeholders to improve early warnings and implement flood risk reduction measures. - Introduced concepts related to flood risk and citizen science into the school curriculum in Brazil, which can be used by schools and civil protection volunteers across the country; - Improved stakeholders' access to flood data, so they are able to generate it and to understand it better; - Brought significant evidence on the impact of the project's tools by democratizing data and by addressing the data gaps hampering climate action. We are already scaling up the project and expanding the geographical scope across Brazil through the associated UKRI project listed under other funding (see details in the impact narrative). |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| URL | https://stories.council.science/transformations-sustainability-waterproofing-data-pollinators/ |
| Description | After expanding impact activities of the project with UKRI grant within the Global Research Translation Awards (EP/T015683/1), our data-driven innovation approach, including a functional citizen-science mobile app prototype and a model school curriculum, has been successfully co-produced and trialled with 300+ students from 20+ schools and civil protection agencies of five Brazilian states. This successful trial has proven the positive impact for the communities involved, enabling them to democratise flood data, raise awareness, and co-design new initiatives to reduce disaster risks. This landmark success sparked positive media reports stating our approach "could change the way communities deal with floods in Brazil", as covered in 170+ outlets, including interviews given for 5 national broadcast TV programmes and 6 major newspapers. Given this success, in the next phase of the project, our approach has been adopted as part of the "Cemaden Educação" programme of Brazil's National Disaster Monitoring and Early-Warning Centre with the goal of scaling up the usage of our pedagogical approach as a major risk reduction programme engaging all schools in vulnerable communities in Brazil in community data generation and improving the resilience and afterwards expanding to other Latin American cities. Only in Brazil, these would have tangible impact for the lives of 8.3 million people who live in areas which are vulnerable to rainfall-related disaster risks, as estimated by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in 2018. The benefits of better early-warning and effective community-based risk reduction programmes could save human lives and mitigate the significant economic impact of disasters, which are estimated by the World Bank to have caused R$ 336 billion losses (£48 billion) in Brazil from 1995 to 2019. The project has engaged elderly people, school children, teachers and national agencies in Brazil to achieve impacts on thinking, capacity and practice, as follows: The process of co-producing and using flood-related data has underpinned significant changes in thinking by: 1. Enhancing the inclusion of elderly people (e.g. the project draws upon their knowledge of past flood events in order to generate local data); 2. Informing the education of school pupils (e.g. students have learned how to make rainfall gauges and record data); 3. Deepening community understanding about flood risks (e.g. communities now think differently about rainfall, floods and their neighbourhoods). This co-production process enhanced capacity through the development of: (a) a citizen-science mobile app; (b) a guide for school teachers, which have: 4. Informed the practice of teachers in 24 schools, and agents in 16 civil protection agencies, in nine cities, across five states. Since late 2021, the use of these project outputs has resulted in the generation of more than 7,390 rows of data by 369 citizen reporters. In turn, these data have: 5. Enhanced the capacity of community members living in flood-prone areas to take protective action (e.g. reports from the local civil defence agency in Pernambuco suggest that the activities of the citizen scientists enabled early action during the floods and landslides of May 2022, which contributed to saving human lives). 6. Informed the practice of CEMADEN (e.g. community-generated data are used to improve flood accuracy and early warning systems). Reflecting on the significance of the project, the Director of CEMADEN wrote, 'Improved local-level data co-produced by citizens [] enables CEMADEN to improve the current understanding of the local impacts of flooding across the continental territory of Brazil.' CEMADEN has recently secured resources amounting to R$1.4m (~£235K) to scale-up and extend the reach of the project outputs. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Education,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Data and Displacement: Assessing the Practical and Ethical Implications of Targeting Humanitarian Protection |
| Amount | £475,524 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/T007516/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2020 |
| End | 03/2023 |
| Description | IDEAMAPS: A participatory data-modeling ecosystem for deprived area map production in LMIC cities |
| Amount | $1,690,337 (USD) |
| Funding ID | INV-045252 |
| Organisation | Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 10/2022 |
| End | 09/2025 |
| Description | Teaching for Digital Citizenship: Digital ethics in the classroom and beyond it. |
| Amount | £601,560 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ES/X002756/1 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2022 |
| End | 11/2024 |
| Description | Cities in Transition in Times of Ecological and Climate Crisis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor Joao Porto de Albuquerque spoke as a panellist in this event as part of the Communicating Sustainability Conference held in Glasgow, UK, on 7th September 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | http://communicatingsustainability2022.com/timetable/event/sustainability-and-the-city-3 |
| Description | Digital geographies and participatory urban analytics for resilience and global sustainable development |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor Joao Porto de Albuquerque was invited as guest lecturer by the British Geological Survey, Nottingham (UK). The event took place on 22nd September 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Helping communities in Brazil to produce flood-related data |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This is a presentation about the data platform designed for the Waterproofing data and the way it supports citizen's data production in Brazil. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7148338 |
| Description | Impact Story by the International Science Council - Waterproofing Data: Pollinators in data gardens |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Impact story published by the International Science Council website based on interviews given by project members of the Waterproofing Data Project. It highlights the project outcomes and publicises them to a wider audience of the general public and policy makers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://stories.council.science/transformations-sustainability-waterproofing-data-pollinators/ |
| Description | Introducing the Waterproofing Data dashboard v.0.0.1 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In this blog, Andy Clarke and Professor João Porto de Albuquerque introduce the latest instalment from the Waterproofing Data project - a public web platform presenting maps and charts visualising flood-related data in Brazil. Bringing together data from weather stations, disaster risk mapping and citizen science, the dashboard app was developed with the dialogical approach of the Waterproofing Data project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.ubdc.ac.uk/news-media/2022/september/introducing-the-waterproofing-data-dashboard-v001 |
| Description | Waterproofing Data and Citizen Science for Disaster Risk Reduction: Observation Networks and a Mobile App in Schools and Communities |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor João Porto de Albuquerque was invited to deliver this lecture at the World Meteorological Organisation Urban Workshop, Geneva, on 13th June 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Waterproofing Data: Engaging Citizens in Data-Driven Sustainability |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The closing workshop of the project took place at the Advanced Research Centre, University of Glasgow, UK on 28th June 2022. The Waterproofing Data project investigated how to build communities' resilience to flooding, by engaging communities and stakeholders in Brazil in the process of generating, circulating and using flood-related data. The project was conducted by an international, transdisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners from Brazil, Germany and the UK. In this closing event, we invited researchers and practitioners interested in the topic to discuss the results achieved in the Waterproofing Data project and to work together on synthesising information from other related initiatives and to work a collaborative research agenda for future research. The format of the workshop included invited presentations, followed by an interactive collaborative session. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Waterproofing data: citizen data science and climate adaptation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor Joao Porto de Albuquerque delivered this workshop at the Brazilian Network for Citizen Science (online) on 7th July 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Waterproofing data: engaging citizens in data-driven sustainability |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor João Porto de Albuquerque was invited to deliver this lecture at the Applied Research Symposium, Foundation Getulio Vargas, São Paulo, Brazil, on 23rd August 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |