The Transformations to Sustainability programme’s Waterproofing Data project has been shortlisted for the 2022 THE Awards ‘Project of the Year’ in the category of ‘Research Project of the Year: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences’ for its work on flood memories in Brazil.

The Waterproofing Data project investigated how to build communities’ resilience to flooding, by engaging stakeholders in the process of generating the data used to predict when floods will occur.

The research was carried out by an international, transdisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners from Brazil, Germany and the UK. They developed innovative methods and co-produced a social data-driven innovation combining community data and analytics to improve the resilience of communities to flooding.This included a citizen-science mobile app, ‘Dados à Prova D’Água‘, a model curriculum for schools, and a data analytics platform for developing early-warning models.

The project addressed the major adaptation and data gaps that exist around the world about the local impacts of climate hazards in vulnerable communities. It has been co-produced and successfully trialled with 300+ school students and civil protection agents in Brazil, and will be scaled up to engage citizens from vulnerable communities in Brazil and around the globe in transformative adaptation.

The winners of the awards will be announced in November 2022.