Interactive visualization and communication of hydrological information to support multi-level natural hazard reduction and resilience building

“互联网连接的电脑和移动的手机无处不在，彻底改变了人们交流和分享信息的方式。这导致了社会计算机网络的使用呈指数级增长，以及前所未有的信息量的可用性。这个博士项目旨在利用这一演变来降低人类的脆弱性，并促进在洪水和干旱等自然灾害背景下的复原力建设。自然灾害的社会影响在世界许多地区，特别是在发展中国家正在增加。然而，现有环境信息（如降雨量和河流流量记录）的稀缺性和低质量，以及对这些信息的处理和向需要者的传达不够理想，是一项重大挑战，利用公民和科学以及其他参与性办法为缓解这种数据稀缺性提供了机会。这类举措的例子包括基于社区的洪水预警系统、低成本气象站和参与性生态系统服务监测，本项目将研究如何开发新型的协作决策支持系统，以支持收集和交流环境数据的基层举措，从而提高地方对自然灾害的复原力。该项目将利用云计算和社交网络等信息和通信技术的新技术发展，并将建立在创建动态可视化和信息图表的最新见解基础上。特别是，该项目将研究如何对信息的可视化（包括不确定性等固有属性）进行定制和调整，以使广泛的行为者，特别是弱势群体和技术和科学背景较低的人能够获得。"

"The ubiquitous presence of internet-connected computers and mobile phones has revolutionised the way that people communicate and share information. This has resulted in an exponential rise in the use of social computer networks, and the availability of unprecedented amounts of information.This PhD project aims to leverage this evolution to decrease human vulnerability and promote resilience building in the context of natural hazards such as floods and droughts.The societal impact of natural hazards is increasing in many parts of the world, particularly in developing countries. However, the scarcity and low quality of existing environmental information (such as rainfall and river flow records), as well as suboptimal processing and communication of that information to the people who need it, is a major challenge.The use of citizen and science and other participatory approaches present an opportunity to alleviate this data scarcity. Examples of such initiatives include community-based flood early warning systems, low-cost weather stations, and participatory monitoring of ecosystem services.This project will study how new types of collaborative decision-support systems can be developed to support grassroots initiatives for the collection and communication of environmental data that can increase local resilience to natural hazards. The project will leverage new technological developments in ICT such as cloud computing and social networks, and will build upon the most recent insights in the creation of dynamic visualisation and infographics. In particular, the project will study how the visualisation of information (including inherent properties such as uncertainties) needs to be tailored and adapted to be accessible for a wide range of actors, and in particular disadvantaged groups and people with low technical and scientific background."