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.

Waterproofing Data investigates the governance of water-related risks, with a focus on social and cultural aspects of data practices.

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 the public 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.

Aims and Objectives

This project develops three innovative methods around data practices, across different sites and scales:

• Making visible existing flows of flood-related data through tracing data;
• 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, and;
• Integrating 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 Rio Branco, Brazil.

Impact

Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

The expected long-term impact of this project is a contribution towards the SDG 11 targets of:

• Reducing the number of deaths and people affected by water-related disasters and reducing direct economic losses caused (SDG 11.5)
• Increasing the number of cities and human settlements adopting integrated policies and plans towards resilience to disasters and holistic disaster risk management (SDG 11.B).

Researchers

Principal Investigator: Professor João Porto de Albuquerque

Co-Investigators:

• Professor Maria Alexandra Cunha
• Professor Alexander Zipf

Researchers:

• Carolin Klonner, Heidelberg University
• Dr Conrado Rudorff, CEMADEN
• Professor Joanne Garde Hansen, University of Warwick
• Professor Jon Coaffee, University of Warwick
• Dr Liana Anderson, CEMADEN
• Dr Nathaniel Tkacz, University of Warwick
• Dr Nerea Calvillo Gonzalez, University of Warwick
• Dr Rachel Trajber, CEMADEN
• Vangelis Pitidis, University of Warwick
• Dr Victor Marchezini, CEMADEN
• Dr Livia Degrossi, FGV
• Dr Mario Martins, FGV
• Dr Fernanda Lima, CEMADEN

Partners

Co-operating organisations

Funders

The Waterproofing Data project is financially supported by the Belmont Forum and NORFACE Joint Research Programme on Transformations to Sustainability, which is co-funded by DLR/BMBF, ESRC, FAPESP, and the European Commission through Horizon 2020. The UK funding for this project is funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund.