DIGITAL EARTH PARTNERSHIPACCELERATING DIGITAL EARTH OBSERVATION SERVICES FOR RESILIENT DEVELOPMENTOCTOBER 2023

Caroline Gevaert | cgevaert@worldbank.org

The

DIGITAL EARTHPARTNERSHIP
aims to enhance the resilience ofvulnerable countries and communities
to climate change & natural hazard
disasters through greater access toand adoption of frontier earth
observation tools & services.

TRADITIONAL APPROACH TO DATA MANAGEMENT: OBSOLETE, ANALOG, CORRECTIVEDATA IS:LEADS TO:⇒ non-existent⇒ response approach that is⇒ inaccurate or obsoletecorrective not preventative⇒ inaccessible⇒ analog, or proprietary format⇒ expensive⇒ $$ correction 16x >$$ prevention

Traditional Approach to Risk Data Collection

EXPERT CENTRICCOSTLYCOMPLEXTOP DOWNNOT DESIGNED TO SCALE

Applications of Frontier Earth Observation & AI
for Disaster Risk Management, Climate Change Resilience & Sustainable Development

FLOOD HAZARDS⦿ Flood Event Mapping⦿ Flood Historical Mapping⦿ Flood Hazard Mapping

GEO HAZARDS⦿ Terrain Deformation► Landslide HazardAssessment► Landslide Inventory► Subsidence⦿ Seismic related Activity
⦿ Coastal Erosion
⦿ Harsh Weather

EXPOSURE

RISK ASSESSMENT⦿ Urban Asset Mapping⦿ Population Mapping⦿ Non-urban Asset Mapping⦿ Vulnerability Assessment
⦿ Risk Mapping⦿ Loss Cost Mapping

Blended Approach for Maximum Impact
LOCAL PARTICIPATION➤ context➤ calibration➤ training

Z

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

EARTH OBSERVATION➤ customization➤ independence➤ cost reduction➤ trust➤ analysis potential➤ cost effective at scaleSustainability & Scalerequires a bottom-up approach to datacollection, employing accessible,
disruptive technologies for solutions that are:
LOCAL
OPEN

DIGITALSIMPLEA Responsible, Inclusive ApproachCo-creation of geospatial data
address locally articulated needs
pool expertise and resources

Local Capacity Building criticalfor adoption, sustainability andcontinued tech development

Strong ethical frameworks
protect the vulnerable, and ensure
shared benefits of disruptive tech

Skill Development
introduce marketable digitalskills, and potential
employment opportunities

RESILIENCE
ACADEMY
Skills, Sustainability, Research & Reforms

specs.

Resilience Academy trains young people with tools, knowledge, and skills to address
the world’s most pressing urban challenges and to discover solutions for resilient
urban development.
The original Resilience Academy, Tanzania, is a partnership between four academic
institutions in Tanzania, with the University of Turku (UTU) from Finland, theGovernment of Tanzania, the World Bank, and the Foreign, Commonwealth andDevelopment Office (FCDO).
There are FOUR main components to the initiative:

INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
⦿ engages Tanzanian university students to8-week trainings with the industry.
⦿ engages students and community members
in digital geospatial data collection

CLIMATE RISK DATABASE (CRD)⦿ digital geospatial data sets managed andshared on Geonode.
⦿ all data sets collected by student interns andTURP stakeholders are stored in CRD.

OPEN E-LEARNING MATERIALS⦿ educational materials for e-learning ofpractical data and analysis skills. Materials
are used in the university degree programs

RESEARCH & INNOVATION ACTIVITIES⦿ research activities are built on novel data,technology and application ideas around urban
resilience.
Image Source: World Architecture. Lake Victoria Drone ChallengeExample – Waste management

550

Youth Mappers

770+km of Drains

20,000 informal dumps
100Interactivedata map500

Clean ups

Tonnesremovedhttps://www.worldbank.org/en/news/video/2019/10/30/solid-waste-trash-mapping---community-driven-solutions-for-urban-waste

MONITORINGURBAN
FORESTCANOPY
WITHAITechnological approaches to support Nature based solutions

specs.

Cities require comprehensive forest inventory to support the regularmonitoring of the growth and health of planted trees
In addition to field based inventory, baseline canopy detection using RS
allows for scaled approach

APPROACH:
⦿ Using high-res imagery local mappers identified, digitized and labeledrepresentative samples of existing urban canopy cover.

⦿ This data was used to train a ML algorithm, to classify historic imagery,and establish a “greening’ baseline.

⦿ Tree canopy map is produced for the whole urban expanse⦿ Repeat as needed for change detection

Image Source: World Architecture. Lake Victoria Drone Challenge

Soil Mapping & Erosion Modeling: Tanzania
specs.

Tanzanian Urban Resilience Project⦿ Soil erosion heightens flood impacts in Dar es Salaam

Cost<25% of typical cost⦿ Soil data is lacking, hindering the accuracy of floodmodelling⦿ A team of young professionals & students used open
source apps & measurement tools for collection of soil
samples⦿ The subsequent profiles showed:► which areas are most susceptible to erosion,► which are experiencing the most erosion, and► how this influences flooding and river dynamics

Mappers
16

Area Mapped
643 sites
2,752 sq km

Example – Zanzibar Buildings Survey

15

Government
Surveyors

20

UniversityYouth

2,400 km sq 2,500 Flights<20%of typical costhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVEdhSodIeE

Drone Data Digitization
1

2500 km² surveyed

2500,000 buildings digitised3

AI competition4Digital Surface Model

54 Start-up companies

Open Cities Africa

specs.

2018-2020

St. Louis, Senegal
Bamako, Mali

1,500,000

16Features Mapped

Participating Cities

Monrovia, Liberia

Niamey, Mali

Ngaoundere, Cameroon
Accra, Ghana
Yaounde, Cameroon

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

1,600

1,000’s

340%

Mappers

CitizensEngagedRegional
Knowledge
Exchanges

Female Participationin trainings inmapping

Digital & Paper Tools
Inform Policy & Investment Decisions

Kampala, Uganda
Brazzaville, Congo
Kinshasa, DRC
Pointe Noire, Congo

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Zanzibar, TanzaniaSeychelles

Antananarivo, Madagascar

Cocreation Using Microtasking
using mobile platforms toperform simple
digital-tasks-for-payment

novel way to employ
new recruits

low to high skill options tosuit the prior experience,
training, and digital
resources

STEP 1
Break workflow into Tasks

STEP 2

STEP 3

STEP 4

Find opportunities

Mobile learning/skills

Complete and upload

STEP 5Work is validated

STEP 6
mobile payment

WSF Tracker: Exposure Data as a Public GoodNEW CAIRO CITY [EGYPT]Microtasking Pilot Study: Malispecs.

Identifying Solid Waste from Imagery w. MapSwipe

No. of Tasks
1,331,154

Workers
119

Task Type
Remotework
Low skilled

Z

Task Description
The MapSwipe team built on the existing app to enable youth
within Bamako to swipe through satellite imagery, identifying
areas where solid waste sites are located. wipers would identify
image cells where solid waste was visible, by tapping on the app.
Each image was checked by 5 swipers for agreement.

EXTREME HEAT IN CITIESFrom assessment to action
1. BUILD EVIDENCE BASE

2. ENGAGE STAKEHOLDERS

3. IMPLEMENT ACTIONSGFDRR has worked with climate modeling partners
to deliver forward-looking heat stress projections,at urban or national scale, in South Africa, Tunisia,Romania, India and other countries.

For a regional flagship study on extreme heat,
GFDRR mobilized citizen science volunteers to
conduct heat mapping using sensors fitted to
motorbikes. Participants also identified localized
options to mitigate heat exposure through a survey
methodology using thermal cameras.

Building on climate modeling and citizen
engagement, GFDRR has facilitated workshops todefine governmental priorities on heat mitigation working across heatwave emergency
management, public health responses and ‘coolcities’ actions.

TOOLS: Citizen science assessment using vehiclebased, handheld and smartphone-based heatcameras.

TOOLS: Multi-stakeholder planning workshops,
defining investment options, implementation support.

Bucharest: projected number of hot nights per year

Present
2041-2060
TOOLS: Climate modeling; impacts assessment ofhealth, labor & infrastructure channels; assesschange in person-hours exposure.

DIGITAL EARTH FOR A RESILIENT CARIBBEAN

specs.

Exposure Datasets to support Disaster Risk Management

To raise awareness and enhance local capacity in the Caribbean to make use of
Earth Observation (EO) data and services in support of resilient infrastructureand housing operations.
APPROACH:
⦿ Develop exposure typology for areas/neighborhoods across the islands
using multiple data streams, such as high resolution imagery, building
footprints, and other local datasets⦿ Training and validation data would be captured through field work with alocal implementing partner

⦿ Generate a replicable model to generate neighborhood level exposure
datasets, making use where possible of existing government datasets, andsupplementing here needed.

THANK YOU
Join the partnership:
Caroline Gevaert | cgevaert@worldbank.org