Celebrating the One-Year Anniversary of Disasters.data.gov

This month marks the one-year anniversary of the public launch of Disasters.data.gov, an effort led by the Technology and Innovation for Disaster Preparedness (TIDP) Working Group of the National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction. The TIDP Working Group was formed in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 to find the most effective ways technology and innovation can empower survivors, first responders, and local, state, tribal, and Federal government with critical information and resources to strengthen national preparedness and resilience. First previewed at the White House Innovation for Disaster Response and Recovery Initiative Demo Day in August 2014, Disasters.data.gov is a public resource to foster collaboration and the continual improvement of disaster-related open data, free tools, and new ways to provide first responders, survivors, and government officials with the information needed during disasters.

Today, the curated content on the Disasters.data.gov portal includes 139 datasets and 23 tools and apps related to different types of disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, severe weather, and wildfires. Since the official launch of the portal one year ago, the TIDP Working Group has been busy with a variety of additional efforts to build on Disasters.data.gov and further help connect stakeholders from many different sectors with the resources, support, and knowledge they need for effective disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Key accomplishments and milestones achieved in the past year through these efforts include:

• On October 30, 2015, in Alexandria, VA, the TIDP Working Group organized a well-received, interactive “Innovation for Disasters” panel for the Third Annual Safety Datapalooza. The panel highlighted recent agency-led initiatives and advances in crowdsourcing, digital toolkits, and virtual reality for disaster preparedness and response, and discussed them with the audience.
• As part of the White House Citizen Science Forum “Open Science and Innovation: Of the People, By the People, For the People”, on September 30, 2015, members of the TIDP Working Group participated in a workshop that provided an opportunity for cross-sector discussions to spur bigger, better, and bolder utilization of citizen-science and crowdsourcing across a number of important disaster-related challenges, such as monitoring drought conditions and recovering from coastal flooding.
• At the June 12-13, 2015 inaugural National Maker Faire at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington, DC, Federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the U.S. Department of Defense, hosted interactive exhibits related to disaster resilience. The event included makers from across the country and featured technologies such as the Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response (FINDER) prototype that was used to find four men buried under rubble during the Nepal earthquake earlier this year, and the Citizen Power Brigade project that was developed at the Civic Hardware Hackathon in New York City in October 2014.
• In conjunction with the America’s PrepareAthon! Campaign National Day of Action in April 2015, the TIDP Working Group released a host of new tools, services, and initiatives to increase the number of individuals who understand which disasters could happen in their community, know what to do to be safe and mitigate damage, take action to increase their preparedness, and participate in community resilience planning.

The anniversary of the launch of Disasters.data.gov is a time to reflect on and celebrate the considerable accomplishments that the TIDP Working Group has made over the past 12 months. Ensuring lasting and effective successes in advancing disaster preparedness and resilience will require the continued support and engagement of stakeholders from all sectors across the Nation. The TIDP Working Group and the broader disaster-preparedness community is constantly seeking new ways to collaborate and to leverage the creativity, social entrepreneurship, resourcefulness, and ingenuity of individuals and organizations to advance and strengthen national disaster preparedness.

These efforts, aligned with the White House Innovation for Disaster Response and Recovery Initiative, will continue to elevate and support innovative ideas to harness technology to prepare ourselves, our neighbors, our communities, our schools, and our workplaces more effectively before, during, and after a disaster strikes.

Tamara Dickinson is Principal Assistant Director for Environment and Energy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Dave Applegate is Acting Deputy Director in the Office of the Director at the U.S. Geological Survey.