This project develops three innovative methods around data practices, across different sites and scales:

• Making visible existing flows of flood-related data through tracing data;
• Generating new types of data at the local level by engaging citizens through the creation of multimodal interfaces, which sense, collect and communicate flood data, and;
• Integrating citizen-generated data with other data using geo-computational techniques.

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 Sao Paulo and Rio Branco, Brazil.

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 the public of a multi-site case study on flood risk management in 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.

WP1: Making Data Flows Visible

Make visible the way citizens, local government authorities, and other agencies involved in the management of water-related risks engage with data on flooding.

WP2: Community Engagement Through Data Circulation

Engage intergenerational groups of citizens to produce, circulate and embed data, which incorporates and builds upon pre-existing flood memories and local knowledge of flood risk, to increase community resilience.

WP3: Data Integration and Curation for Decision Support

Integrate citizen-generated data with other data sources, such as environmental sensors, socio-demographics and risk mapping, in ways that support decision-making and policy-making on flooding.

WP4: Transformations Towards Waterproofing Data

Facilitate transformations of the data practices of key stakeholders, ensuring community knowledge of the research is accessible to all project stakeholders and beyond.

WP5: Translation of Waterproof Data Into Sustainable Governance

Translate “waterproof data” into sustainable flood risk governance, through integrating the different work streams, tracking governance changes and promoting a transcultural dialogue on flood data practices.

WP6: Development and Application of a citizen-science mobile application for community resilience.

Scaling up and dissemination of the project's methods to engage schools, flood-prone communities and local governments in the production and circulation of flood-related data to improve flood resilience.

A schematic representation of the research approach followed in Waterproofing data, showing the scales and work packages of the project.

Two case studies, in the cities of São Paulo and Rio Branco in Brazil, will be instrumental for developing interdisciplinary research methods in response to three main research questions:

1. How to make visible the way citizens, local government authorities, and other agencies involved in the management of water-related risks engage with data on flooding?

2. How to engage citizens to produce, circulate and embed data, which incorporates and builds upon pre-existing flood memories and local knowledge of flood risk, to increase community resilience?

3. How to integrate citizen-generated data with other data sources, such as environmental sensors, socio-demographics and risk mapping, in ways that support decision-making and policy-making on flooding?

Principal Investigator

Professor Joao Porto de Albuquerque, University of Glasgow, UK

Co-investigators

Professor Maria Alexandra Cunha

Professor Alexander Zipf

Researchers

Collaborating Organisations

Waterproofing Data brings together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and institutions from the three collaborating countries, United Kingdom, Brazil and Germany, through the funding of around €1m, provided by an international association of research councils: Economic and Social Sciences Research Council (ESRC), São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), in collaboration with NORFACE, the Belmont Forum and the International Science Council within the Transformations to Sustainability (T2S) research programme.