National Risk Information Platform Being Developed

A National Risk Information Platform (NRIP) is being developed to support the work of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) and the National Data Spatial Management Branch (NDSMB).

The platform’s development is being facilitated under the Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project (DVRP), being implemented by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) with World Bank financing.

Speaking during a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’ at the Agency’s Head Office in Kingston on Thursday (November 9), Acting Deputy Director General, ODPEM, Michelle Edwards, said that developing the platform is intended to ensure that the agency has credible information and to build a culture of safety for all Jamaicans.

She noted that in order to have a culture of safety, there needs to be accessible information and data.

“So, the National Risk Information Platform is that clearing house where we will have our risk data for the country, our hazard data, our exposure data, our vulnerability data and that, now, will be made available for persons to support decision-making for planners [and] for persons that will need risk data in the work that they do,” Ms. Edwards said.

She informed that the platform will have specific tools which allow users to visualise, analyse and download the information as it relates to risks.

“There is a coastal risk atlas on the platform and, of course, the platform will allow for some degree of modelling, that is, to look at the impacts of flooding and other hazards,” she added.

Ms. Edwards further indicated that a unique feature of the platform will be the community of practice.

“This… will allow disaster risk management professionals, scientists and persons in the space to discuss issues relating to disaster management, for example, the earthquake that took place [recently]. It would be a forum for a conversation to start in the scientific community, in the disaster risk management community where the knowledge and the exchange of knowledge is transferred, presented and discussed so that we can look at the best solutions that we can produce and the best decisions that we need to make for the country,” she informed.

The Acting Deputy Director General also shared that there is an ongoing discussion with the University of the West Indies (UWI) scientific community for them to have a space on the platform.

This will enable the integration of tools developed by the Climate Studies Group which are able to do modelling for, among other things, climate type hazards, storm surges, and hurricanes.

Ms. Edwards noted that there is also a tool developed by the Disaster Risk Reduction Centre at the UWI that focuses on earthquakes.

“One of the things that the platform will be able to do, once those discussions are completed, is to have those tools that can now support how persons can interrogate the information and develop their solutions based on whatever research or project they are working on,” she pointed out.

The NRIP is currently being migrated from the development platform to being housed on the servers at the NSDMB.

It is expected to become accessible to the public by May 2024.