Waterproofing Data: Engaging stakeholders in sustainable flood risk governance for urban resilience

Waterproofing Data tackles the challenge of improving the resilience of communities and cities to floods. This is accomplished by investigating the governance of water-related risks, with a focus on social and cultural aspects of data practices. By rethinking how flood-related data is produced and how it flows, Waterproofing Data will enable transformations to build sustainable, resilient communities. To this end, Waterproofing Data develops three innovative methods around data practices, across different sites and scales: 1) we will make visible existing flows of flood-related data through tracing data; 2) generate new types of data at the local level by engaging citizens through the creation of multi-modal interfaces, which sense, collect and communicate flood data, and; 3) integrate citizen-generated data with other data using geo-computational techniques. 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 publics of a multi-site case study on flood risk management in Sao Paulo and Acre, Brazil.

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 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.

Project leader: Dr. J. Porto de Albuquerque, University of Warwick (United Kingdom)

Principal Investigators: Prof. M.A. Viegas Cortez da Cunha, Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil), Prof. A. Zipf, Heidelberg University (Germany)