Visualizing Climate Change & Resilience

In this challenge, ADB South Asia Department (SARD) aims to increase the visibility of the importance of climate research and build climate action capacity in ADB developing member countries by engaging data scientists and practitioners to create novel and insightful visualizations of our changing world.

 

Asia and the Pacific encompass the largest and fastest growing economies in the world, with increasing levels of greenhouse gas emissions.  The region is also home to among the most exposed and vulnerable communities, who have been bearing the brunt of escalating climate change impacts. This puts the countries in the region in the position of determining whether a sustainable and resilient future is possible for all.  

 

To guide ADB's efforts in shaping this future, in September 2019, ADB adopted Strategy 2030 Operational Priority 3: Tackling Climate Change, Building Climate and Disaster Resilience, and Enhancing Environmental Sustainability. Key responses identified include:  

• scaling up support to address climate change, disaster risks, and environmental degradation  
• accelerating low greenhouse gas emission development  
• ensuring a comprehensive approach to build climate and disaster resilience  
• ensuring environmental sustainability  
• increasing focus on the water–food–energy nexus

 

ADB recognizes that understanding the data we use to measure and track climatic events and conditions is key to addressing climate change. Today, scientists gather and share an abundance of climate data: measurements of temperatures, ocean currents, soil moisture, air quality, cloud cover, and hundreds of other phenomena. While these data are critical to helping understand the climate crisis, they can sometimes seem 'out of reach' of public audiences. Therefore, this challenge aims to discover data visualizations that reveal the crucial insights behind the complex data to all its viewers, helping to clear the path towards a more resilient and sustainable future.

How can we make the importance of addressing climate change more accessible to our government counterparts and global decision-makers?  

Help us visualize data to tell a story about climate change and resilience!