Why the United States needs an Open Disaster Data Initiative

I recently participated in the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) Wildland Fire Policy Accelerator to develop science, data, and technology policy recommendations for the federal Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission.

By way of background, the Commission has been tasked by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to provide recommendations to Congress on ways to better prevent, manage, suppress and recover from wildfires.

I got interested in developing data-related recommendations for the Commission following what I learned while writing the first State of FireTech Report last year:

While digitization represents the biggest area of FireTech innovation and investment, we still don’t have a complete picture of our nation’s wildfire risk down to the granular level.

This is because the public, private, and non-profit sectors are constantly creating more disaster vulnerability, loss, and damage data in silos, but this data is not linked in productive and efficient ways.

For example, Federal, state, local, and Tribal agencies collect and maintain a range of disaster vulnerability, damage, and loss data. However, this valuable data currently lives on different platforms and in various formats across agency silos.

Resulting data leaks and inefficiencies make it difficult to gauge the true cost of disasters and augment appropriate preparedness, mitigation, and adaptation measures for a range of natural hazards, including wildfires, smoke, drought, extreme heat, flooding, and debris flow.

Due to cascading impacts, it is important to emphasize, this isn’t just about wildfire data or smoke data, but about all disaster data. The problem runs deep and affects everything we think we know about our nation’s disaster risk and future projections.

So, here’s a plan to fix it:

The Biden-Harris Administration should launch an Open Disaster Data Initiative that mandates federal, state, local, and Tribal agencies to systematically collect, share, monitor, and report on disaster vulnerability, damage, and loss data, in formats that are consistent and interoperable.

The White House and Congress, where appropriate, should act on the following recommendations:

1. Appoint a White-House level staff position in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Chief Technology Officer’s ‘Tech Team’ to establish the Open Disaster Data Initiative. The OSTP should develop a road map for rolling out the Open Disaster Data Initiative and facilitate the participation of all relevant federal agencies in jointly: a) undertaking a disaster data systems and infrastructure assessment, and b) creating the architecture for the nation’s first open disaster data system. The OSTP must work with the Office of Management and Budget to create a well-resourced budget for this ambitious and urgent multi-year, multi-stakeholder exercise.
2. Issue an Executive Order to task the National Council on Science and Technology to appoint a Committee to develop national standards for disaster vulnerability, damage, and loss data collection, sharing, and reporting, by all relevant federal, state, local, and Tribal agencies, as well as by universities, non-profits, and the private sector. In the past decade, several bipartisan research, data, and policy reviews have reiterated the need to develop national standards for the consistent collection and reporting of damage and loss data. Recent disaster and wildfire research data platforms and standards provide precedence and show how investing in data standards and interoperability can enable inclusive, equitable, and just disaster preparedness, response, and recovery outcomes.
3. Designate FEMA as the national focal point agency to maintain a federated, open, integrated, and interoperable disaster data system that can seamlessly roll-up local data, including research and non-profit data. FEMA’s National Incident Management System will be well positioned to cut across hazard mission silos and offer wide-ranging operational support and training for disaster loss accounting to federal, state, local, and Tribal agencies, as well as non-profit stakeholders.

Further, building on the CDC’s Data Modernization Initiative and efforts in developing an all-of-government COVID-19 pandemic management data platform, it is recommended that all federal agencies engaged in wildland fire management activities collaborate in taking the following steps to launch the Open Disaster Data Initiative:

1. Undertake a Disaster Data Systems and Infrastructure Assessment to inform the development of national standards and identify barriers for accurate disaster data tracking, accounting, and sharing between federal, state, local, and Tribal agencies, as well as the philanthropic and private sector.
2. Adopt national standards for disaster vulnerability, damage, and loss data collection and reporting to address ongoing issues concerning data quality, completeness, integration, interoperability, and accessibility.
3. Ensure appropriate federal agency work plans reflect the national data standards, such as for digital and infrastructure planning, requests for proposals, and procurement processes to streamline all future data collection, sharing, and reporting.
4. Develop federal agency capacities to accurately collect and analyze disaster vulnerability, damage, and loss data, especially as it relates to population estimates of mortality and morbidity, including from wildfire smoke.
5. Provide guidance, training, and resources to states, non-profits, and the private sector to adopt national disaster data standards and facilitate seamless roll-up of disaster vulnerability, damage, and loss data to the federal level thereby enabling accurate monitoring and accounting of community resilience in inclusive and equitable ways.

There are also important lessons to learn from international efforts on this front, such as the United Nations’ ongoing work on creating the next generation of disaster loss and damage databases.

The Open Disaster Data Initiative will need a budget and capacity commitment to streamline disaster data collection and sharing to bolster whole-of-nation disaster resilience for at least three societal and environmental outcomes.

First, the Initiative will enable enhanced data sharing and information coordination among federal, state, local, and Tribal agencies, as well as with universities, non-profits, philanthropies, and the private sector.

Second, the Initiative will allow for longitudinal monitoring of cascading disaster impacts on community well-being and ecosystem health, including a better understanding of how disasters impact poverty rates, housing trends, local economic development, and displacement and migration trends, particularly among socially and historically marginalized communities.

Finally, the Initiative will inform the prioritization of policy and program investments for inclusive, equitable, and just disaster risk reduction outcomes, especially in socially and historically marginalized communities, including rural communities.

Guided by the Open Government Initiative (2016), the Fifth National Action Plan (2022), and in the context of the Year of Open Science (2023), the Open Disaster Data Initiative will lead to greater accountability in how federal, state, and local governments prioritize funding, especially to marginalized communities.

More here. Read about the Open Disaster Data Initiative and other science, data, and technology recommendations to the Commission here and look out for more detailed, long-form recommendations in June 2023!

Reach out! If you have thoughts on how to bolster these recommendations to the Commission, Congress, and relevant federal agencies, please reach out: shefali@lakhina.com

Acknowledgements Warm thanks to Scott Kaplan (USGS), Lori Peek (University of Colorado Boulder), John Mills (Watch Duty), Melanie Gall and Brian Gerber (Arizona State University), Andrew Padilla (Datacequia), Luke Beckman (American Red Cross), Matt Weiner (Megafire Action), Monica Sanders (The Undivide Project), and Wildland Fire Management Commission members for their engagement and feedback. Gratitude to Erica Goldman, Jacob Robertson, and Jessica Blackband for steering this through!