Expert climate scientists at Columbia University have developed a new interactive tool that can help predict natural disasters so the government can prepare for them.
They led the U.S. Natural Hazards Climate Change Projections project with a group of researchers to create an interactive dataset with maps and graphs, according to a post by the Earth Institute at Columbia University in Phys.org. The dataset can track and predict climate change-fueled extreme events on a county level.
These detailed estimates provide vital information to governments, city officials, disaster relief organizations, and residents. Better preparation for natural disasters is good for the environment and can mean less expensive damage and fewer injuries and deaths.
In their testing, the researchers found that San Diego and Washington State are both at a high risk for wildfires, and it could get worse. North Dakota and South Dakota could also see an increased risk for wildfires, and the East Coast may soon see more tornadoes.
"While the challenges of climate change and disasters may seem overwhelming, it is also important to note that we have more knowledge at our disposal than ever before," said Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, a climate professor at the Columbia Climate School, per Phys.org.
"By working across sectors and engaging partnerships like this, we can provide data that is empirically rigorous and immediately relevant to stakeholders outside of academia. This helps to foster better decisions, better investments and better resilience for our communities."
The team released the dataset tool in April as open source and available to everyone. It's an important resource in a time when the Trump Administration is cutting funding to FEMA and taking down governmental agency tracking websites.
"By making this data available in an accessible format, we aim to support not just climate scientists and risk modelers, but also urban planners, emergency managers and researchers in other fields, like economics or human mobility," said Simona Meiler, a postdoctoral climate researcher at Stanford University, per Phys.org.
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