'Islands of excellence’ in catastrophe & disaster risk data, tools and services in the face of the climate change crisis – how can innovation systems advance stakeholder understanding and use of catastrophe and disaster sciences?

New catastrophe and disaster risk data, tools and services can often include complex science and algorithms that offer profoundly important information on understanding risk or can inform climate adaption. However, if few people know about or understand how and in what context to use these tools, they remain on the databases of academic institutions and in scientific journals across the world. How many tools that could transform the world’s understanding of risk and ways to adapt to that risk already exist or are currently under development? The answer is likely to be in the hundreds. But, how many of those tools have ever been used beyond one or two scientific case studies? The answer is likely to be, in most cases, very few.

 

Academic institutions often administer barriers on access to their data and tools through institutional data management and by specifically implementing non-commercial use licensing in the dissemination of tools once scientific studies are completed. In addition, very commonly, insufficient thought is put to the exploitation strategies of these tools. The gaps in understanding and trust between academia and the needs of business sometimes feel insurmountable on both sides. Is ‘custom’ defying reason in the face of the climate change crisis and the need for rapid systems transformation globally?

 

The Oasis family, offers new approaches around transparency, collaboration, dissemination and exploitation and the encouragement of intereoperability by providing platforms that allow for comparative approaches to scientific data and tools.

 

Firstly, "OASIS LMF is an open source platform for developing, deploying and executing catastrophe models to enable the “plug and play” of hazard and vulnerability modules (along with exposure and insurance policy terms) by way of a set of data standards that describe a model. It has been built in collaboration with the insurance industry (https://oasislmf.org/)." Oasis Palmtree offers support to enable access to this system.

 

Secondly, Oasis Hub, has designed science innovation approaches to bringing tools and data to wider, diverse audiences in collaboration with scientific institutions. We discuss "OASIS Hub, as a global window and conduit to free and commercial environmental, catastrophe and risk data, tools and services (https://oasishub.co/) as an example of a new innovation approach.