This dataset is a merged and unified one from seven individual datasets, making it the longest records ever and wide coverage in the US for flood studies. All individual databases and a unified database are provided to accommodate different user needs. It is anticipated that this database can support a variety of flood-related research, such as a validation resource for hydrologic or hydraulic simulations, climatic studies concerning spatiotemporal patterns of floods given this long-term and U.S.-wide coverage, and flood susceptibility analysis for vulnerable geophysical locations.

Description of filenames:

1. cyberFlood_1104.csv – web-based crowdsourced flood database, developed at the University of Oklahoma (Wan et al., 2014). 203 flood events from 1998 to 2008 are retrieved with the latest version. Data accessed on 11/04/2020.

Data attributes: ID, Year, Month, Day, Duration, fatality, Severity, Cause, Lat, Long, Country Code, Continent Code

2. DFO.xlsx – the Dartmouth Flood Observatory flood database. It is a tabular form of global flood database, collected from news, government agencies, stream gauges, and remote sensing instruments from 1985 to the present. Data accessed on 10/27/2020.

Data attributes: ID, GlodeNumber, Country, OtherCountry, long, lat, Area, Began, Ended, Validation, Dead, Displaced, MainCause, Severity

3. emdat_public_2020_11_01_query_uid-MSWGVQ.xlsx – Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT). This flood report is managed by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters in Belgium, which contains all types of global natural disasters from 1900 to the present. Data accessed on 11/01/2020.

Data attributes: Dis No, Year, Seq, Disaster Group, Disaster Subgroup, Disaster Type, Disaster Subtype, Disaster Subsubtype, Event Nane, Entity Criteria, Country, ISO, Region, Continent, Location, Origin, Associated Disaster, Associated Disaster2, OFDA Response, Appeal, Declaration, Aid Contribution, Disaster Magnitude, Latitude, Longitude, Local Time, River Basin, Start Year, Start Month, Start Day, End Year, End Month, End Day, Total Death, No. Injured, No. Affected, No. Homeless, Total Affected, Reconstruction, Insured Damages, Total Damages, CPI

4. extracted_events_NOAA.csv – The national weather service storm reports. The NOAA NWS team collects weather-related natural hazards from 1950 to the present. Data accessed on 10/27/2020.

Data attributes: BEGIN_YEARMONTH, BEGIN_DAY, BEGIN_TIME, END_YEARMONTH, END_DAY, END_TIME, EPISODE_ID, EVENT_ID, STATE, STATE_FIPS, YEAR, MONTH_NAME, EVENT_TYPE, CZ_TYPE, CZ_FIPS, CZ_NAME, WFO, BEGIN_DATETIME, CZ_TIMEZONE, END_DATE_TIME, INJURIES_DIRECT, INJURIES_INDIRECT, DEATHS_DIRECT, DEATHS_INDIRECT, DAMAGE_PROPERTY, DAMAGE_CROPS, SOURCE, MAGNITUDE, MAGNITUDE_TYPE, FLOOD CAUSE, CATEGORY, TOR_F_SCALE< TOR_LENGTH, TOR_WIDTH, TOR_OTHER_WFO, TOR_OTHER_CZ_STATE, TOR_OTHER_CZ_FIPS, BEGIN_RANGE, BEGIN_AZIMUTH, BEGIN_LOCATION, END_RANGE, END_AZIMUTH, END_LOCATION, BEGIN_LAT, BEGIN_LON, END_LAT, END_LON, EPISODE_NARRATIVE, EVENT_NARRATIVE, DATA_SOURCE

5. FEDB_1118.csv – The University of Connecticut Flood Events Database. Floods retrieved from 6,301 stream gauges in the U.S. after flow separation from 2002 to 2013 (Shen et al., 2017). Data accessed on 11/18/2020.

Data attributes: STCD, StartTimeP, EndTimeP, StartTimeF, EndTimeF, Perc, Peak, RunoffCoef, IBF, Vp, Vb, Vt, Pmean, ETr, ELs, VarTr, VarLs, EQ, Q2, CovTrLs, Category, Geometry

6. GFM_events.csv – Global Flood Monitoring dataset. It is a crowdsourcing flood database derived from Twitter tweets over the globe since 2014. Data accessed on 11/9/2020.

Data attributes: event_id, location_ID, location_ID_url, name, type, country_location_ID, country_ISO3, start, end, time of detection

7. mPing_1030.csv – meteorological Phenomena Identification Near the Ground (mPing). The mPing app is a crowdsourcing, weather-reporting software jointly developed by NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) and the University of Oklahoma (Elmore et al., 2014). Data accessed on 10/30/2020.

Data attributes: id, obtime, category, description, description_id, lon, lat

8. USFD_v1.0.csv – A merged United States Flood Database from 1900 to the present.

Data attributes: DATE_BEGIN, DATE_END, DURATION, LON, LAT, COUNTRY, STATE, AREA, FATALITY, DAMAGE, SEVERITY, SOURCE, CAUSE, SOURCE_DB, SOURCE_ID, DESCRIPTION, SLOPE, DEM, LULC, DISTANCE_RIVER, CONT_AREA, DEPTH, YEAR.

Details of attributes:

DATE_BEGIN: begin datetime of an event. yyyymmddHHMMSS

DATE_END: end datetime of an event. yyyymmddHHMMSS

DURATION: duration of an event in hours

LON: longitude in degrees

LAT: latitude in degrees

COUNTRY: United States of America

STATE: US state name

AREA: affected areas in km^2

FATALITY: number of fatalities

DAMAGE: economic damages in US dollars

SEVERITY: event severity, (1/1.5/2) according to DFO.

SOURCE: flood information source.

CAUSE: flood cause.

SOURCE_DB: source database from item 1-7.

SOURCE_ID: original ID in the source database.

DESCRIPTION: event description

SLOPE: calculated slope based on SRTM DEM 90m

DEM: Digital Elevation Model

LULC: Land Use Land Cover

DISTANCE_RIVER: distance to major river network in km,

CONT_AREA: contributing area (km^2), from MERIT Hydro

DEPTH: 500-yr flood depth

YEAR: year of the event.

The script to merge all sources and figure plots can be found in https://github.com/chrimerss/USFD.

China: jedes Jahr Flutkatastrophen: Wie kaum ein anderes Land hat China in den vergangenen Jahrhunderten fast regelmäßig katastrophale Hochwasserereignisse erlitten, bei denen manchmal hunderttausende starben. Kein Jahr vergeht ohne große Überschwemmungen. Auch im neuen Jahrtausend gab es schon Hochwasserkatastrophen, doch scheinen die Konsequenzen weniger dramatisch zu sein als früher. Chinas letzte verheerende Flut ereignete sich 1998, als die Ströme Jangtse und Songhua ganze Regionen wochenlang in Atem hielten. Zwar werden in China nach wie vor Flüsse in enge Verläufe gezwängt und riesige Flächen versiegelt, aber es gab in den letzten zwanzig Jahren auch große Anstrengungen beim Hochwasserschutz. Zudem zeigte sich die Natur eine Weile nicht von ihrer extremsten Seite. Zumindest bis zum Jahr 2016, als es wieder zu außergewöhnlichen Überschwemmungen kam. China: every year flood disasters: China, like hardly any other country in the world, has almost regularly suffered from catastrophic floods over the past centuries claiming sometimes the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. No year passed without a major flood. There have been flood disasters in the new millennium as well, but the consequences seem to have been less dramatic than previously. China’s last devastating floods happened in 1998, when the Yangtze and Songhua Rivers kept whole regions in suspense for weeks on end. Today, rivers are still not spared from being constrained and urban areas from being sealed, but there were also great efforts in the past 20 years with respect to flood control and protection. Also, nature took a break in producing outrageous extremes – until 2016. Then, extraordinary flooding occurred again.

This starter data kit collects extracts from global, open datasets relating to climate hazards and infrastructure systems.

These extracts are derived from global datasets which have been clipped to the national scale (or subnational, in cases where national boundaries have been split, generally to separate outlying islands or non-contiguous regions), using Natural Earth (2023) boundaries, and is not meant to express an opinion about borders, territory or sovereignty.

Human-induced climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of climate and weather extremes. This is causing widespread, adverse impacts to societies, economies and infrastructures. Climate risk analysis is essential to inform policy decisions aimed at reducing risk. Yet, access to data is often a barrier, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Data are often scattered, hard to find, in formats that are difficult to use or requiring considerable technical expertise. Nevertheless, there are global, open datasets which provide some information about climate hazards, society, infrastructure and the economy. This "data starter kit" aims to kickstart the process and act as a starting point for further model development and scenario analysis.

Hazards:

• coastal and river flooding (Ward et al, 2020)
• extreme heat and drought (Russell et al 2023, derived from Lange et al, 2020)
• tropical cyclone wind speeds (Russell 2022, derived from Bloemendaal et al 2020 and Bloemendaal et al 2022)

Exposure:

• population (Schiavina et al, 2023)
• built-up area (Pesaresi et al, 2023)
• roads (OpenStreetMap, 2023)
• railways (OpenStreetMap, 2023)
• power plants (Global Energy Observatory et al, 2018)
• power transmission lines (Arderne et al, 2020)

The spatial intersection of hazard and exposure datasets is a first step to analyse vulnerability and risk to infrastructure and people.

To learn more about related concepts, there is a free short course available through the Open University on Infrastructure and Climate Resilience. This overview of the course has more details.

These Python libraries may be a useful place to start analysis of the data in the packages produced by this workflow:

• snkit helps clean network data
• nismod-snail is designed to help implement infrastructure exposure, damage and risk calculations

The open-gira repository contains a larger workflow for global-scale open-data infrastructure risk and resilience analysis.

For a more developed example, some of these datasets were key inputs to a regional climate risk assessment of current and future flooding risks to transport networks in East Africa, which has a related online visualisation tool at https://east-africa.infrastructureresilience.org/ and is described in detail in Hickford et al (2023).

References

• Arderne, Christopher, Nicolas, Claire, Zorn, Conrad, & Koks, Elco E. (2020). Data from: Predictive mapping of the global power system using open data [Dataset]. In Nature Scientific Data (1.1.1, Vol. 7, Number Article 19). Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3628142
• Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, H. (Hans); Muis, S; Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Aerts, J.C.J.H. (Jeroen) (2020): STORM tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI: 10.4121/12705164.v3
• Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, Hans; Dullaart, Job; Haarsma, R.J. (Reindert); Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Martinez, Andrew B.; et al. (2022): STORM climate change tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI: 10.4121/14510817.v3
• Global Energy Observatory, Google, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Enipedia, World Resources Institute. (2018) Global Power Plant Database. Published on Resource Watch and Google Earth Engine; resourcewatch.org/
• Hickford et al (2023) Decision support systems for resilient strategic transport networks in low-income countries – Final Report. Available online: https://transport-links.com/hvt-publications/final-report-decision-support-systems-for-resilient-strategic-transport-networks-in-low-income-countries
• Lange, S., Volkholz, J., Geiger, T., Zhao, F., Vega, I., Veldkamp, T., et al. (2020). Projecting exposure to extreme climate impact events across six event categories and three spatial scales. Earth's Future, 8, e2020EF001616. DOI: 10.1029/2020EF001616
• Natural Earth (2023) Admin 0 Map Units, v5.1.1. [Dataset] Available online: www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/10m-admin-0-details
• OpenStreetMap contributors, Russell T., Thomas F., nismod/datapkg contributors (2023) Road and Rail networks derived from OpenStreetMap. [Dataset] Available at global.infrastructureresilience.org
• Pesaresi M., Politis P. (2023): GHS-BUILT-S R2023A - GHS built-up surface grid, derived from Sentinel2 composite and Landsat, multitemporal (1975-2030) European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID: data.europa.eu/89h/9f06f36f-4b11-47ec-abb0-4f8b7b1d72ea, doi:10.2905/9F06F36F-4B11-47EC-ABB0-4F8B7B1D72EA
• Russell, T., Nicholas, C., & Bernhofen, M. (2023). Annual probability of extreme heat and drought events, derived from Lange et al 2020 (Version 2) [Dataset]. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8147088
• Schiavina M., Freire S., Carioli A., MacManus K. (2023): GHS-POP R2023A - GHS population grid multitemporal (1975-2030). European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID: data.europa.eu/89h/2ff68a52-5b5b-4a22-8f40-c41da8332cfe, doi:10.2905/2FF68A52-5B5B-4A22-8F40-C41DA8332CFE
• Ward, P.J., H.C. Winsemius, S. Kuzma, M.F.P. Bierkens, A. Bouwman, H. de Moel, A. Díaz Loaiza, et al. (2020) Aqueduct Floods Methodology. Technical Note. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute. Available online at: www.wri.org/publication/aqueduct-floods-methodology.

Natural Disasters Deaths

People killed in natural disasters by country by year

About this dataset

How much do natural disasters cost us? In lives, in dollars, in infrastructure? This dataset attempts to answer those questions, tracking the death toll and damage cost of major natural disasters since 1985. Disasters included are storms ( hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones ), floods, earthquakes, droughts, wildfires, and extreme temperatures

How to use the dataset

This dataset contains information on natural disasters that have occurred around the world from 1900 to 2017. The data includes the date of the disaster, the location, the type of disaster, the number of people killed, and the estimated cost in US dollars

Research Ideas

• An all-in-one disaster map displaying all recorded natural disasters dating back to 1900.
• Natural disaster hotspots - where do natural disasters most commonly occur and kill the most people?
• A live map tracking current natural disasters around the world

Acknowledgements

License

See the dataset description for more information.

The dataset of flood’s characteristics (annual and spring): the volume of spring flood (in mm of the depth of runoff), the dates of spring flood begin and end, the length of spring flooding period, the yearly maximum daily discharge and its date were estimated for each year from the daily series of water discharges observed at the hydrometric sites. To define the dates of spring flood begin and end we applied the semi-empirical method given in Shevnina (2013). The yearly maximum water discharges have been obtained in Gudmundsson et al. (2018) for the period until 2017; this dataset gives a good agreement in the estimations for the overlapping periods. The series of volume of spring flood (in mm of the depth of runoff), the dates of spring flood begin and end, the length of spring flooding period, the yearly maximum daily discharge and its date are given in the dataset supplementing the study submitted to the Water resource research journal (https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19447973 ).

The daily series of water river discharges at the sites located in Finland were extracted from (a) the Global runoff database https://portal.grdc.bafg.de/ (for the period from beginning of the observations to 2017); (b) the archive of the Finnish Environmental Institute https://www.syke.fi (for the period 2018–2020) and these series can be obtained after its representatives’ permission from the author. The daily series of water discharges at the sites located in the Russian Federation were extracted from (a) the yearly hydrological books published by the State Hydrological Institute http://www.hydrology.ru/en (for the period from the beginning of observation to 2007); (b) the automated information system for state monitoring of water bodies https://gmvo.skniivh.ru/ (for the period 2008–2020) and these series are available from its web-site after a registration.

The dataset consists of the CSV/TXT files, each file contains the long term series of the characteristics listed in the header: "year", "DFB" (date when a spring flooding period begins, day of year, DOY),"DFE" (date when the spring flooding period ends, DOY),"Length" (length of the spring flooding period, days), "DFMax" (date when the yearly maximum water discharge is recorded, DOY), "Qmax" (the yearly maximum water discharge, cubic m per second), "FRD" (the volume of spring flood expressed in mm per flooding period), "YRD" (volume of annual flow, expressed in mm per year),"Ftype" (the source of annual flood equaling to 1 of the yearly maximum water discharge is recorded in the spring flooding period or 0 if it is not).

The dataset was obtained in the study funded by the Academy of Finland under the contract number 317999. It will become freely available once the manuscript is published.

References

Gudmundsson, L., Do, H. X., Leonard, M., & Westra, S. (2018), The Global Streamflow Indices and Metadata Archive (GSIM) – Part 2: Quality control, time-series indices and homogeneity assessment, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 787–804, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-787-2018.

Shevnina E. (2013), Method to calculate characteristics of spring flood from daily water discharges, Problems of the Arctic and Antarctic, 1(95), pp. 12-21. In Russian

This starter data kit collects extracts from global, open datasets relating to climate hazards and infrastructure systems.

These extracts are derived from global datasets which have been clipped to the national scale (or subnational, in cases where national boundaries have been split, generally to separate outlying islands or non-contiguous regions), using Natural Earth (2023) boundaries, and is not meant to express an opinion about borders, territory or sovereignty.

Human-induced climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of climate and weather extremes. This is causing widespread, adverse impacts to societies, economies and infrastructures. Climate risk analysis is essential to inform policy decisions aimed at reducing risk. Yet, access to data is often a barrier, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Data are often scattered, hard to find, in formats that are difficult to use or requiring considerable technical expertise. Nevertheless, there are global, open datasets which provide some information about climate hazards, society, infrastructure and the economy. This "data starter kit" aims to kickstart the process and act as a starting point for further model development and scenario analysis.

Hazards:

• coastal and river flooding (Ward et al, 2020; Baugh et al, 2024)
• extreme heat and drought (Russell et al 2023, derived from Lange et al, 2020)
• tropical cyclone wind speeds (Russell 2022, derived from Bloemendaal et al 2020 and Bloemendaal et al 2022)

Exposure:

• population (Schiavina et al, 2023)
• built-up area (Pesaresi et al, 2023)
• roads (OpenStreetMap, 2023)
• railways (OpenStreetMap, 2023)
• power plants (Global Energy Observatory et al, 2018)
• power transmission lines (Arderne et al, 2020)

Contextual information:

• elevation (European Union and ESA, 2021)
• land-use and land cover (Copernicus Climate Change Service and Climate Data Store, 2019)
• administrative boundaries from geoBoundaries (Runfola et al., 2020)

The spatial intersection of hazard and exposure datasets is a first step to analyse vulnerability and risk to infrastructure and people.

To learn more about related concepts, there is a free short course available through the Open University on Infrastructure and Climate Resilience. This overview of the course has more details.

These Python libraries may be a useful place to start analysis of the data in the packages produced by this workflow:

• snkit helps clean network data
• nismod-snail is designed to help implement infrastructure exposure, damage and risk calculations

The open-gira repository contains a larger workflow for global-scale open-data infrastructure risk and resilience analysis.

For a more developed example, some of these datasets were key inputs to a regional climate risk assessment of current and future flooding risks to transport networks in East Africa, which has a related online visualisation tool at https://east-africa.infrastructureresilience.org/ and is described in detail in Hickford et al (2023).

References

• Arderne, Christopher, Nicolas, Claire, Zorn, Conrad, & Koks, Elco E. (2020). Data from: Predictive mapping of the global power system using open data [Dataset]. In Nature Scientific Data (1.1.1, Vol. 7, Number Article 19). Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3628142
• Baugh, Calum; Colonese, Juan; D'Angelo, Claudia; Dottori, Francesco; Neal, Jeffrey; Prudhomme, Christel; Salamon, Peter (2024): Global river flood hazard maps. European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) [Dataset] PID: data.europa.eu/89h/jrc-floods-floodmapgl_rp50y-tif
• Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, H. (Hans); Muis, S; Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Aerts, J.C.J.H. (Jeroen) (2020): STORM tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI: 10.4121/12705164.v3
• Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, Hans; Dullaart, Job; Haarsma, R.J. (Reindert); Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Martinez, Andrew B.; et al. (2022): STORM climate change tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI: 10.4121/14510817.v3
• Copernicus Climate Change Service, Climate Data Store, (2019): Land cover classification gridded maps from 1992 to present derived from satellite observation. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS). DOI: 10.24381/cds.006f2c9a (Accessed on 09-AUG-2024)
• Copernicus DEM - Global Digital Elevation Model (2021) DOI: 10.5270/ESA-c5d3d65 (produced using Copernicus WorldDEM™-90 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved)
• Global Energy Observatory, Google, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Enipedia, World Resources Institute. (2018) Global Power Plant Database. Published on Resource Watch and Google Earth Engine; resourcewatch.org/
• Hickford et al (2023) Decision support systems for resilient strategic transport networks in low-income countries – Final Report. Available online: https://transport-links.com/hvt-publications/final-report-decision-support-systems-for-resilient-strategic-transport-networks-in-low-income-countries
• Lange, S., Volkholz, J., Geiger, T., Zhao, F., Vega, I., Veldkamp, T., et al. (2020). Projecting exposure to extreme climate impact events across six event categories and three spatial scales. Earth's Future, 8, e2020EF001616. DOI: 10.1029/2020EF001616
• Natural Earth (2023) Admin 0 Map Units, v5.1.1. [Dataset] Available online: www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/10m-admin-0-details
• OpenStreetMap contributors, Russell T., Thomas F., nismod/datapkg contributors (2023) Road and Rail networks derived from OpenStreetMap. [Dataset] Available at global.infrastructureresilience.org
• Pesaresi M., Politis P. (2023): GHS-BUILT-S R2023A - GHS built-up surface grid, derived from Sentinel2 composite and Landsat, multitemporal (1975-2030) European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID: data.europa.eu/89h/9f06f36f-4b11-47ec-abb0-4f8b7b1d72ea, doi:10.2905/9F06F36F-4B11-47EC-ABB0-4F8B7B1D72EA
• Runfola D, Anderson A, Baier H, Crittenden M, Dowker E, Fuhrig S, et al. (2020) geoBoundaries: A global database of political administrative boundaries. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0231866. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231866.
• Russell, T., Nicholas, C., & Bernhofen, M. (2023). Annual probability of extreme heat and drought events, derived from Lange et al 2020 (Version 2) [Dataset]. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8147088
• Schiavina M., Freire S., Carioli A., MacManus K. (2023): GHS-POP R2023A - GHS population grid multitemporal (1975-2030). European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID: data.europa.eu/89h/2ff68a52-5b5b-4a22-8f40-c41da8332cfe, doi:10.2905/2FF68A52-5B5B-4A22-8F40-C41DA8332CFE
• Ward, P.J., H.C. Winsemius, S. Kuzma, M.F.P. Bierkens, A. Bouwman, H. de Moel, A. Díaz Loaiza, et al. (2020) Aqueduct Floods Methodology. Technical Note. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute. Available online at: www.wri.org/publication/aqueduct-floods-methodology.

Groundwater is the water that soaks into the ground from rain and can be stored beneath the ground. Groundwater floods occur when the water stored beneath the ground rises above the land surface. The Historic Groundwater Flood Mapshows the observed peak flood extents caused by groundwater in Ireland. This map was made using satellite images (Copernicus Programme Sentinel-1), field data, aerial photos, as well as flood records from the past. Most of the data was collected during the flood events of winter 2015 / 2016, as in most areas this data showed the largest floods on record.The map is a vector dataset. Vector data portray the world using points, lines, and polygons (area). The floods are shown as polygons. Each polygon has info about the type of flood, the data source, and the area of the flood.The flood extents were calculated using data and techniques with various precision levels, and as such, it may not show the true historic peak flood extents.The Winter 2015/2016 Surface Water Flooding map shows fluvial (rivers) and pluvial (rain) floods, excluding urban areas, during the winter 2015/2016 flood event, and was developed as a by-product of the historic groundwater flood map.The map is a vector dataset. The floods are shown as polygons. Each polygon has info about the type of flood, the data source, and the area of the flood.The flood extents were made using remote sensing images (Copernicus Programme Sentinel-1), which covered any site in Ireland every 4-6 days. As such, it may not show the true peak flood extents.

This dataset was generated by the Remote Sensing Group of the TU Wien Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation, within Framework Contract (No. 939866-IPR-2020) as part of the provision of an automated, global, satellite-based flood monitoring product for the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) managed by the European Commission. The Global Flood Monitoring (GFM) product is integrated within the user interface of the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS) of the CEMS. Open use of the dataset is granted under the CC BY 4.0 license.

The Copernicus Sentinel-1 constellation is a highly-capable monitoring mission and provides one of the most comprehensive global archives on satellite imagery. The satellite sensors acquire Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images, and as such, they observe regardless of weather conditions and daylight. The regular and systematic observations generate rich information on the global land surface and its dynamics, which is used for---but not limited to---terrestrial applications like e.g. land cover mapping, flood detection, or drought monitoring.

The complete Sentinel-1 time-series dataset is challenging to analyze, primarily due to its sheer data volume of at the (global) scale of Petabytes. As a user-friendly alternative, this dataset provides a Harmonic (Fourier) series model that reduces the SAR backscatter seasonality to a relative small number of GeoTIFF files holding the harmonic coefficient values.

This dataset publication provides a temporal Sentinel-1 model for most of the world's land masses. Seven coefficients computed using (harmonic) least squares regression, along with the standard deviation of residuals and number of observations, comprise the harmonic parameter set. The parameters are being operationally used to determine the expected SAR backscatter signal for any day of the year as part of the TU Wien's method contributing to GFM's ensemble flood monitoring effort (Bauer-Marschallinger et. al, 2022). The Global Harmonic Parameters (HPARs) were derived from the whole Sentinel-1 VV temporal stack for the period 2019-2020 by least squares regression with a harmonic model formulation, running three sinusoidal iterations (k=3).

The model describes the typical seasonal Sentinel-1 backscatter variation on a 20 m pixel level. It was designed as a smoothed time-series approximation, removing short-term perturbations, such as speckle and transient events (like floods for instance). Hence, the model is suited to discern the seasonal changes brought about by varying water content, e.g., inundation or soil moisture, and progression of vegetation structure.

We encourage developers from the broader user community to exploit this extensive and functional data resource. In particular, we promote the use of these Sentinel-1 HPARs in models for various applications dealing with land cover, seasonal water mapping, or vegetation phenology.

For the datasets' theoretical formulation and primary use case as a non-flooded backscatter reference model, please refer to our peer-reviewed article. Additionally, the software used, computation process, and outlook are discussed in this conference paper.

Data record

The parameter sets are provided per Sentinel-1's relative orbit to account for geometric effects. The parameter files are sampled at 20 m pixel spacing, georeferenced to the Equi7Grid, and divided into six continental zones (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America. For portability and easier downloads, further sub-divisions into continental parts are done, resulting in 12 compressed bundles (please refer to coverage map).

The parameter sets are provided per Sentinel-1's relative to account for geometric effects. The parameter files are sampled at 20 m pixel spacing, georeferenced to the Equi7Grid, and divided into six continental zones (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America);. For portability and easier downloads, further sub-divisions into continental parts are done, resulting in 12 compressed bundles (please refer to coverage map).

The data itself is organised as square tiles of 300 km extent ("T3"-tiles). Note that the parameters are generated for each orbit, resulting in several orbit-sets per tile. Given this structure, a total of 98910 files for the 10990 tiled orbit-sets, comprising overall a compressed disk size of 3.7 TB.

The datasets follow the Yeoda filenaming convention (documentation here) where the core meta information is embedded. Notably, the file name is prefaced by the product name 'SIG0-HPAR-' and the particular parameter codes:

• M0 - effective mean of the time series stacks, also called the harmonic residual in other literature.
• Cn - cosine component coefficients, where n = 1, 2, or 3.
• Sn - sine component coefficients, where n = 1, 2, or 3.
• STD - standard deviation of residuals, a proxy for model goodness of fit.
• NOBS - number of observations used for the least squares regression, also
  an indicator of solution quality.

Orbit sets are distinguishable by orbit direction, i.e. (A - ascending and D - descending) and relative orbit number, for example: 'A175', 'D080'.

File naming scheme is as follows:

SIG0-HPAR-NNN_YYYYMMDD1_YYYYMMDD2_VV_OOOO_TTTTTTTTTT_GGGG_V02R01_S1IWGRDH.tif

*bold faced items are fixed for this product version.

• NNN - product name which indicates parameter code.
• YYYYMMDD1 - start date of time series processed.
• YYYYMMDD2 - end date of time series processed.
• VV - polarization of product.
• OOOO - relative orbit.
• TTTTTTTTTT - Equi7grid tile name.
• GGGG - Subgrid. Contains continent code and sampling size.
• V02R01 - Product version.
• S1IWGRDH - Sensor type.

For example:
'SIG0-HPAR-STD_20190101_20210101_VV_D111_E102N066T3_SA020M_V02R01_S1IWGRDH.tif'

The parameters' file format is an LZW-compressed GeoTIFF holding 16-bit integer values, with tagged metadata on encoding and georeference. Compatibility with common geographic information systems such as QGIS or ArcGIS, and geodata libraries as GDAL is given.

This repository provides all parameter sets per orbit for each tile and is organized in a folder structure per (sub-)continent. With this, twelve zipped dataset collections per (sub-)continent are available for download.

Code Availability

We suggest users to use the open-source Python package yeoda, a datacube storage access layer that offers functions to read, write, search, filter, split and load data from this repository as an HPAR datacube. The yeoda package is openly accessible on GitHub at https://github.com/TUW-GEO/yeoda.

Furthermore, for the usage of the Equi7Grid we provide data and tools via the python package available on GitHub at https://github.com/TUW-GEO/Equi7Grid. More details on the grid reference can be found in this publication .

A day-of-year estimate reader tool based on the packages above is likewise available on GitHub at https://github.com/TUW-GEO/hpar-reader.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank our colleagues: Thomas Melzer of TU Wien for his invaluable insights on the parameter formulation, and Senmao Cao of Earth Observation Data Centre GmbH (EODC) for his contributions to the code base used to process dataset.

This work was partly funded by TU Wien, with co-funding from the project "Provision of an Automated, Global, Satellite-based Flood Monitoring Product for the Copernicus Emergency Management Service" (GFM), Contract No. 939866-IPR-2020 for the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC), and the project "Flood Event Monitoring and Documentation enabled by the Austrian Sentinel Data Cube" (ACube4Floods), Contract No. 878946 for the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG, ASAP16).

The computational results presented have been achieved using the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC). We further would like to thank our colleagues at TU Wien and EODC for supporting us on technical tasks to cope with such a large and complex dataset.

The areas of potential significant flood risk (APSFR) have been identified on the basis of the results of the Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA) according to the FD. APSFR include river sections where significant past floods were registered or where potentially significant floods may occur in the future. Bulgarian reporting river network was used as a basis. The dataset contains the final version of the APSFR as it was delineated according the Bulgarian Water act and was approved by the Minister of environment and water in 2013 year. The dataset is complete.

This dataset is derived from the state-of-the-art global daily streamflow reanalysis GloFAS Reanalysis v3.0 at 0.1° resolution. River floods occurred in all major world rivers in 1980-2018 are selected using a peak over threshold routine. The set of flood peaks is then analyzed to identify the seasonality of floods, including the start, peak and end of the flood events, assuming the 1 in 2 year event as flood threshold.

Groundwater is the water that soaks into the ground from rain and can be stored beneath the ground. Groundwater floods occur when the water stored beneath the ground rises above the land surface. The Historic Groundwater Flood Map shows the observed peak flood extents caused by groundwater in Ireland. This map was made using satellite images (Copernicus Programme Sentinel-1), field data, aerial photos, as well as flood records from the past. Most of the data was collected during the flood events of winter 2015 / 2016, as in most areas this data showed the largest floods on record. The map is a vector dataset. Vector data portray the world using points, lines, and polygons (area). The floods are shown as polygons. Each polygon has info about the type of flood, the data source, and the area of the flood.The flood extents were calculated using data and techniques with various precision levels, and as such, it may not show the true historic peak flood extents.

This starter data kit collects extracts from global, open datasets relating to climate hazards and infrastructure systems.

These extracts are derived from global datasets which have been clipped to the national scale (or subnational, in cases where national boundaries have been split, generally to separate outlying islands or non-contiguous regions), using Natural Earth (2023) boundaries, and is not meant to express an opinion about borders, territory or sovereignty.

Human-induced climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of climate and weather extremes. This is causing widespread, adverse impacts to societies, economies and infrastructures. Climate risk analysis is essential to inform policy decisions aimed at reducing risk. Yet, access to data is often a barrier, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Data are often scattered, hard to find, in formats that are difficult to use or requiring considerable technical expertise. Nevertheless, there are global, open datasets which provide some information about climate hazards, society, infrastructure and the economy. This "data starter kit" aims to kickstart the process and act as a starting point for further model development and scenario analysis.

Hazards:

• coastal and river flooding (Ward et al, 2020)
• extreme heat and drought (Russell et al 2023, derived from Lange et al, 2020)
• tropical cyclone wind speeds (Russell 2022, derived from Bloemendaal et al 2020 and Bloemendaal et al 2022)

Exposure:

• population (Schiavina et al, 2023)
• built-up area (Pesaresi et al, 2023)
• roads (OpenStreetMap, 2023)
• railways (OpenStreetMap, 2023)
• power plants (Global Energy Observatory et al, 2018)
• power transmission lines (Arderne et al, 2020)

The spatial intersection of hazard and exposure datasets is a first step to analyse vulnerability and risk to infrastructure and people.

To learn more about related concepts, there is a free short course available through the Open University on Infrastructure and Climate Resilience. This overview of the course has more details.

These Python libraries may be a useful place to start analysis of the data in the packages produced by this workflow:

• snkit helps clean network data
• nismod-snail is designed to help implement infrastructure exposure, damage and risk calculations

The open-gira repository contains a larger workflow for global-scale open-data infrastructure risk and resilience analysis.

For a more developed example, some of these datasets were key inputs to a regional climate risk assessment of current and future flooding risks to transport networks in East Africa, which has a related online visualisation tool at https://east-africa.infrastructureresilience.org/ and is described in detail in Hickford et al (2023).

References

• Arderne, Christopher, Nicolas, Claire, Zorn, Conrad, & Koks, Elco E. (2020). Data from: Predictive mapping of the global power system using open data [Dataset]. In Nature Scientific Data (1.1.1, Vol. 7, Number Article 19). Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3628142
• Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, H. (Hans); Muis, S; Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Aerts, J.C.J.H. (Jeroen) (2020): STORM tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI: 10.4121/12705164.v3
• Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, Hans; Dullaart, Job; Haarsma, R.J. (Reindert); Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Martinez, Andrew B.; et al. (2022): STORM climate change tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI: 10.4121/14510817.v3
• Global Energy Observatory, Google, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Enipedia, World Resources Institute. (2018) Global Power Plant Database. Published on Resource Watch and Google Earth Engine; resourcewatch.org/
• Hickford et al (2023) Decision support systems for resilient strategic transport networks in low-income countries – Final Report. Available online: https://transport-links.com/hvt-publications/final-report-decision-support-systems-for-resilient-strategic-transport-networks-in-low-income-countries
• Lange, S., Volkholz, J., Geiger, T., Zhao, F., Vega, I., Veldkamp, T., et al. (2020). Projecting exposure to extreme climate impact events across six event categories and three spatial scales. Earth's Future, 8, e2020EF001616. DOI: 10.1029/2020EF001616
• Natural Earth (2023) Admin 0 Map Units, v5.1.1. [Dataset] Available online: www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/10m-admin-0-details
• OpenStreetMap contributors, Russell T., Thomas F., nismod/datapkg contributors (2023) Road and Rail networks derived from OpenStreetMap. [Dataset] Available at global.infrastructureresilience.org
• Pesaresi M., Politis P. (2023): GHS-BUILT-S R2023A - GHS built-up surface grid, derived from Sentinel2 composite and Landsat, multitemporal (1975-2030) European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID: data.europa.eu/89h/9f06f36f-4b11-47ec-abb0-4f8b7b1d72ea, doi:10.2905/9F06F36F-4B11-47EC-ABB0-4F8B7B1D72EA
• Russell, T., Nicholas, C., & Bernhofen, M. (2023). Annual probability of extreme heat and drought events, derived from Lange et al 2020 (Version 2) [Dataset]. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8147088
• Schiavina M., Freire S., Carioli A., MacManus K. (2023): GHS-POP R2023A - GHS population grid multitemporal (1975-2030). European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID: data.europa.eu/89h/2ff68a52-5b5b-4a22-8f40-c41da8332cfe, doi:10.2905/2FF68A52-5B5B-4A22-8F40-C41DA8332CFE
• Ward, P.J., H.C. Winsemius, S. Kuzma, M.F.P. Bierkens, A. Bouwman, H. de Moel, A. Díaz Loaiza, et al. (2020) Aqueduct Floods Methodology. Technical Note. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute. Available online at: www.wri.org/publication/aqueduct-floods-methodology.

CrisisMMD is a large multi-modal dataset collected from Twitter during different natural disasters. It consists of several thousands of manually annotated tweets and images collected during seven major natural disasters including earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires, and floods that happened in the year 2017 across different parts of the World. The provided datasets include three types of annotations.

This starter data kit collects extracts from global, open datasets relating to climate hazards and infrastructure systems.

These extracts are derived from global datasets which have been clipped to the national scale (or subnational, in cases where national boundaries have been split, generally to separate outlying islands or non-contiguous regions), using Natural Earth (2023) boundaries, and is not meant to express an opinion about borders, territory or sovereignty.

Human-induced climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of climate and weather extremes. This is causing widespread, adverse impacts to societies, economies and infrastructures. Climate risk analysis is essential to inform policy decisions aimed at reducing risk. Yet, access to data is often a barrier, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Data are often scattered, hard to find, in formats that are difficult to use or requiring considerable technical expertise. Nevertheless, there are global, open datasets which provide some information about climate hazards, society, infrastructure and the economy. This "data starter kit" aims to kickstart the process and act as a starting point for further model development and scenario analysis.

Hazards:

• coastal and river flooding (Ward et al, 2020; Baugh et al, 2024)
• extreme heat and drought (Russell et al 2023, derived from Lange et al, 2020)
• tropical cyclone wind speeds (Russell 2022, derived from Bloemendaal et al 2020 and Bloemendaal et al 2022)

Exposure:

• population (Schiavina et al, 2023)
• built-up area (Pesaresi et al, 2023)
• roads (OpenStreetMap, 2025)
• railways (OpenStreetMap, 2025)
• power plants (Global Energy Observatory et al, 2018)
• power transmission lines (Arderne et al, 2020)

Contextual information:

• elevation (European Union and ESA, 2021)
• land-use and land cover (Copernicus Climate Change Service and Climate Data Store, 2019)
• administrative boundaries from geoBoundaries (Runfola et al., 2020)

The spatial intersection of hazard and exposure datasets is a first step to analyse vulnerability and risk to infrastructure and people.

To learn more about related concepts, there is a free short course available through the Open University on Infrastructure and Climate Resilience. This overview of the course has more details.

These Python libraries may be a useful place to start analysis of the data in the packages produced by this workflow:

• snkit helps clean network data
• nismod-snail is designed to help implement infrastructure exposure, damage and risk calculations

The open-gira repository contains a larger workflow for global-scale open-data infrastructure risk and resilience analysis.

For a more developed example, some of these datasets were key inputs to a regional climate risk assessment of current and future flooding risks to transport networks in East Africa, which has a related online visualisation tool at https://east-africa.infrastructureresilience.org/ and is described in detail in Hickford et al (2023).

References

• Arderne, Christopher, Nicolas, Claire, Zorn, Conrad, & Koks, Elco E. (2020). Data from: Predictive mapping of the global power system using open data [Dataset]. In Nature Scientific Data (1.1.1, Vol. 7, Number Article 19). Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3628142
• Baugh, Calum; Colonese, Juan; D'Angelo, Claudia; Dottori, Francesco; Neal, Jeffrey; Prudhomme, Christel; Salamon, Peter (2024): Global river flood hazard maps. European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) [Dataset] PID: data.europa.eu/89h/jrc-floods-floodmapgl_rp50y-tif
• Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, H. (Hans); Muis, S; Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Aerts, J.C.J.H. (Jeroen) (2020): STORM tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI: 10.4121/12705164.v3
• Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, Hans; Dullaart, Job; Haarsma, R.J. (Reindert); Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Martinez, Andrew B.; et al. (2022): STORM climate change tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI: 10.4121/14510817.v3
• Copernicus Climate Change Service, Climate Data Store, (2019): Land cover classification gridded maps from 1992 to present derived from satellite observation. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS). DOI: 10.24381/cds.006f2c9a (Accessed on 09-AUG-2024)
• Copernicus DEM - Global Digital Elevation Model (2021) DOI: 10.5270/ESA-c5d3d65 (produced using Copernicus WorldDEM™-90 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved)
• Global Energy Observatory, Google, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Enipedia, World Resources Institute. (2018) Global Power Plant Database. Published on Resource Watch and Google Earth Engine; resourcewatch.org/
• Hickford et al (2023) Decision support systems for resilient strategic transport networks in low-income countries – Final Report. Available online: https://transport-links.com/hvt-publications/final-report-decision-support-systems-for-resilient-strategic-transport-networks-in-low-income-countries
• Lange, S., Volkholz, J., Geiger, T., Zhao, F., Vega, I., Veldkamp, T., et al. (2020). Projecting exposure to extreme climate impact events across six event categories and three spatial scales. Earth's Future, 8, e2020EF001616. DOI: 10.1029/2020EF001616
• Natural Earth (2023) Admin 0 Map Units, v5.1.1. [Dataset] Available online: www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/10m-admin-0-details
• OpenStreetMap contributors, Russell T., Thomas F., nismod/datapkg contributors (2025) Road and Rail networks derived from OpenStreetMap. [Dataset] Available at global.infrastructureresilience.org
• Pesaresi M., Politis P. (2023): GHS-BUILT-S R2023A - GHS built-up surface grid, derived from Sentinel2 composite and Landsat, multitemporal (1975-2030) European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID: data.europa.eu/89h/9f06f36f-4b11-47ec-abb0-4f8b7b1d72ea, doi:10.2905/9F06F36F-4B11-47EC-ABB0-4F8B7B1D72EA
• Runfola D, Anderson A, Baier H, Crittenden M, Dowker E, Fuhrig S, et al. (2020) geoBoundaries: A global database of political administrative boundaries. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0231866. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231866.
• Russell, T., Nicholas, C., & Bernhofen, M. (2023). Annual probability of extreme heat and drought events, derived from Lange et al 2020 (Version 2) [Dataset]. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8147088
• Schiavina M., Freire S., Carioli A., MacManus K. (2023): GHS-POP R2023A - GHS population grid multitemporal (1975-2030). European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID: data.europa.eu/89h/2ff68a52-5b5b-4a22-8f40-c41da8332cfe, doi:10.2905/2FF68A52-5B5B-4A22-8F40-C41DA8332CFE
• Ward, P.J., H.C. Winsemius, S. Kuzma, M.F.P. Bierkens, A. Bouwman, H. de Moel, A. Díaz Loaiza, et al. (2020) Aqueduct Floods Methodology. Technical Note. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute. Available online at: www.wri.org/publication/aqueduct-floods-methodology.

This starter data kit collects extracts from global, open datasets relating to climate hazards and infrastructure systems.

These extracts are derived from global datasets which have been clipped to the national scale (or subnational, in cases where national boundaries have been split, generally to separate outlying islands or non-contiguous regions), using Natural Earth (2023) boundaries, and is not meant to express an opinion about borders, territory or sovereignty.

Human-induced climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of climate and weather extremes. This is causing widespread, adverse impacts to societies, economies and infrastructures. Climate risk analysis is essential to inform policy decisions aimed at reducing risk. Yet, access to data is often a barrier, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Data are often scattered, hard to find, in formats that are difficult to use or requiring considerable technical expertise. Nevertheless, there are global, open datasets which provide some information about climate hazards, society, infrastructure and the economy. This "data starter kit" aims to kickstart the process and act as a starting point for further model development and scenario analysis.

Hazards:

• coastal and river flooding (Ward et al, 2020; Baugh et al, 2024)
• extreme heat and drought (Russell et al 2023, derived from Lange et al, 2020)
• tropical cyclone wind speeds (Russell 2022, derived from Bloemendaal et al 2020 and Bloemendaal et al 2022)

Exposure:

• population (Schiavina et al, 2023)
• built-up area (Pesaresi et al, 2023)
• roads (OpenStreetMap, 2025)
• railways (OpenStreetMap, 2025)
• power plants (Global Energy Observatory et al, 2018)
• power transmission lines (Arderne et al, 2020)

Contextual information:

• elevation (European Union and ESA, 2021)
• land-use and land cover (Copernicus Climate Change Service and Climate Data Store, 2019)
• administrative boundaries from geoBoundaries (Runfola et al., 2020)

The spatial intersection of hazard and exposure datasets is a first step to analyse vulnerability and risk to infrastructure and people.

To learn more about related concepts, there is a free short course available through the Open University on Infrastructure and Climate Resilience. This overview of the course has more details.

These Python libraries may be a useful place to start analysis of the data in the packages produced by this workflow:

• snkit helps clean network data
• nismod-snail is designed to help implement infrastructure exposure, damage and risk calculations

The open-gira repository contains a larger workflow for global-scale open-data infrastructure risk and resilience analysis.

For a more developed example, some of these datasets were key inputs to a regional climate risk assessment of current and future flooding risks to transport networks in East Africa, which has a related online visualisation tool at https://east-africa.infrastructureresilience.org/ and is described in detail in Hickford et al (2023).

References

• Arderne, Christopher, Nicolas, Claire, Zorn, Conrad, & Koks, Elco E. (2020). Data from: Predictive mapping of the global power system using open data [Dataset]. In Nature Scientific Data (1.1.1, Vol. 7, Number Article 19). Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3628142
• Baugh, Calum; Colonese, Juan; D'Angelo, Claudia; Dottori, Francesco; Neal, Jeffrey; Prudhomme, Christel; Salamon, Peter (2024): Global river flood hazard maps. European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) [Dataset] PID: data.europa.eu/89h/jrc-floods-floodmapgl_rp50y-tif
• Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, H. (Hans); Muis, S; Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Aerts, J.C.J.H. (Jeroen) (2020): STORM tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI: 10.4121/12705164.v3
• Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, Hans; Dullaart, Job; Haarsma, R.J. (Reindert); Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Martinez, Andrew B.; et al. (2022): STORM climate change tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI: 10.4121/14510817.v3
• Copernicus Climate Change Service, Climate Data Store, (2019): Land cover classification gridded maps from 1992 to present derived from satellite observation. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS). DOI: 10.24381/cds.006f2c9a (Accessed on 09-AUG-2024)
• Copernicus DEM - Global Digital Elevation Model (2021) DOI: 10.5270/ESA-c5d3d65 (produced using Copernicus WorldDEM™-90 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved)
• Global Energy Observatory, Google, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Enipedia, World Resources Institute. (2018) Global Power Plant Database. Published on Resource Watch and Google Earth Engine; resourcewatch.org/
• Hickford et al (2023) Decision support systems for resilient strategic transport networks in low-income countries – Final Report. Available online: https://transport-links.com/hvt-publications/final-report-decision-support-systems-for-resilient-strategic-transport-networks-in-low-income-countries
• Lange, S., Volkholz, J., Geiger, T., Zhao, F., Vega, I., Veldkamp, T., et al. (2020). Projecting exposure to extreme climate impact events across six event categories and three spatial scales. Earth's Future, 8, e2020EF001616. DOI: 10.1029/2020EF001616
• Natural Earth (2023) Admin 0 Map Units, v5.1.1. [Dataset] Available online: www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/10m-admin-0-details
• OpenStreetMap contributors, Russell T., Thomas F., nismod/datapkg contributors (2025) Road and Rail networks derived from OpenStreetMap. [Dataset] Available at global.infrastructureresilience.org
• Pesaresi M., Politis P. (2023): GHS-BUILT-S R2023A - GHS built-up surface grid, derived from Sentinel2 composite and Landsat, multitemporal (1975-2030) European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID: data.europa.eu/89h/9f06f36f-4b11-47ec-abb0-4f8b7b1d72ea, doi:10.2905/9F06F36F-4B11-47EC-ABB0-4F8B7B1D72EA
• Runfola D, Anderson A, Baier H, Crittenden M, Dowker E, Fuhrig S, et al. (2020) geoBoundaries: A global database of political administrative boundaries. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0231866. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231866.
• Russell, T., Nicholas, C., & Bernhofen, M. (2023). Annual probability of extreme heat and drought events, derived from Lange et al 2020 (Version 2) [Dataset]. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8147088
• Schiavina M., Freire S., Carioli A., MacManus K. (2023): GHS-POP R2023A - GHS population grid multitemporal (1975-2030). European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID: data.europa.eu/89h/2ff68a52-5b5b-4a22-8f40-c41da8332cfe, doi:10.2905/2FF68A52-5B5B-4A22-8F40-C41DA8332CFE
• Ward, P.J., H.C. Winsemius, S. Kuzma, M.F.P. Bierkens, A. Bouwman, H. de Moel, A. Díaz Loaiza, et al. (2020) Aqueduct Floods Methodology. Technical Note. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute. Available online at: www.wri.org/publication/aqueduct-floods-methodology.

Groundwater is the water that soaks into the ground from rain and can be stored beneath the ground. Groundwater floods occur when the water stored beneath the ground rises above the land surface. The Historic Groundwater Flood Map shows the observed peak flood extents caused by groundwater in Ireland. This map was made using satellite images (Copernicus Programme Sentinel-1), field data, aerial photos, as well as flood records from the past. Most of the data was collected during the flood events of winter 2015 / 2016, as in most areas this data showed the largest floods on record.This map is to the scale 1:20,000. This means it should be viewed at that scale. When printed at that scale 1cm on the map relates to a distance of 200m.The map is a vector dataset. Vector data portray the world using points, lines, and polygons (area). The floods are shown as polygons. Each polygon has info about the type of flood, the data source, and the area of the flood.The flood extents were calculated using data and techniques with various precision levels, and as such, it may not show the true historic peak flood extents.

This starter data kit collects extracts from global, open datasets relating to climate hazards and infrastructure systems.

These extracts are derived from global datasets which have been clipped to the national scale (or subnational, in cases where national boundaries have been split, generally to separate outlying islands or non-contiguous regions), using Natural Earth (2023) boundaries, and is not meant to express an opinion about borders, territory or sovereignty.

Human-induced climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of climate and weather extremes. This is causing widespread, adverse impacts to societies, economies and infrastructures. Climate risk analysis is essential to inform policy decisions aimed at reducing risk. Yet, access to data is often a barrier, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Data are often scattered, hard to find, in formats that are difficult to use or requiring considerable technical expertise. Nevertheless, there are global, open datasets which provide some information about climate hazards, society, infrastructure and the economy. This "data starter kit" aims to kickstart the process and act as a starting point for further model development and scenario analysis.

Hazards:

coastal and river flooding (Ward et al, 2020)

extreme heat and drought (Russell et al 2023, derived from Lange et al, 2020)

tropical cyclone wind speeds (Russell 2022, derived from Bloemendaal et al 2020 and Bloemendaal et al 2022)

Exposure:

population (Schiavina et al, 2023)

built-up area (Pesaresi et al, 2023)

roads (OpenStreetMap, 2023)

railways (OpenStreetMap, 2023)

power plants (Global Energy Observatory et al, 2018)

power transmission lines (Arderne et al, 2020)

The spatial intersection of hazard and exposure datasets is a first step to analyse vulnerability and risk to infrastructure and people.

To learn more about related concepts, there is a free short course available through the Open University on Infrastructure and Climate Resilience. This overview of the course has more details.

These Python libraries may be a useful place to start analysis of the data in the packages produced by this workflow:

snkit helps clean network data



nismod-snail is designed to help implement infrastructure
exposure, damage and risk calculations

The open-gira repository contains a larger workflow for global-scale open-data infrastructure risk and resilience analysis.

For a more developed example, some of these datasets were key inputs to a regional climate risk assessment of current and future flooding risks to transport networks in East Africa, which has a related online visualisation tool at https://east-africa.infrastructureresilience.org/ and is described in detail in Hickford et al (2023).

References

Arderne, Christopher, Nicolas, Claire, Zorn, Conrad, & Koks, Elco E. (2020). Data from: Predictive mapping of the
global power system using open data [Dataset]. In Nature Scientific Data (1.1.1, Vol. 7, Number Article 19). Zenodo.
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3628142



Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, H. (Hans); Muis, S; Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Aerts, J.C.J.H. (Jeroen) (2020): STORM tropical
cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI:
10.4121/12705164.v3



Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, Hans; Dullaart, Job; Haarsma, R.J. (Reindert); Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Martinez, Andrew B.;
et al. (2022): STORM climate change tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI:
10.4121/14510817.v3



Global Energy Observatory, Google, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Enipedia, World Resources
Institute. (2018) Global Power Plant Database. Published on Resource Watch and Google Earth Engine;
resourcewatch.org/



Hickford et al (2023) Decision support systems for resilient strategic transport networks in low-income countries
– Final Report. Available online:
https://transport-links.com/hvt-publications/final-report-decision-support-systems-for-resilient-strategic-transport-networks-in-low-income-countries



Lange, S., Volkholz, J., Geiger, T., Zhao, F., Vega, I., Veldkamp, T., et al. (2020). Projecting exposure to extreme
climate impact events across six event categories and three spatial scales. Earth's Future, 8, e2020EF001616. DOI:
10.1029/2020EF001616



Natural Earth (2023) Admin 0 Map Units, v5.1.1. [Dataset] Available online:
www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/10m-admin-0-details



OpenStreetMap contributors, Russell T., Thomas F., nismod/datapkg contributors (2023) Road and Rail networks derived
from OpenStreetMap. [Dataset] Available at
global.infrastructureresilience.org



Pesaresi M., Politis P. (2023): GHS-BUILT-S R2023A - GHS built-up surface grid, derived from Sentinel2 composite and
Landsat, multitemporal (1975-2030) European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID:
data.europa.eu/89h/9f06f36f-4b11-47ec-abb0-4f8b7b1d72ea, doi:10.2905/9F06F36F-4B11-47EC-ABB0-4F8B7B1D72EA



Russell, T., Nicholas, C., & Bernhofen, M. (2023). Annual probability of extreme heat and drought events, derived
from Lange et al 2020 (Version 2) [Dataset]. Zenodo. DOI:
10.5281/zenodo.8147088



Schiavina M., Freire S., Carioli A., MacManus K. (2023): GHS-POP R2023A - GHS population grid multitemporal
(1975-2030). European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID:
data.europa.eu/89h/2ff68a52-5b5b-4a22-8f40-c41da8332cfe, doi:10.2905/2FF68A52-5B5B-4A22-8F40-C41DA8332CFE



Ward, P.J., H.C. Winsemius, S. Kuzma, M.F.P. Bierkens, A. Bouwman, H. de Moel, A. Díaz Loaiza, et al. (2020)
Aqueduct Floods Methodology. Technical Note. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute. Available online at:
www.wri.org/publication/aqueduct-floods-methodology.

This starter data kit collects extracts from global, open datasets relating to climate hazards and infrastructure systems.

These extracts are derived from global datasets which have been clipped to the national scale (or subnational, in cases where national boundaries have been split, generally to separate outlying islands or non-contiguous regions), using Natural Earth (2023) boundaries, and is not meant to express an opinion about borders, territory or sovereignty.

Human-induced climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of climate and weather extremes. This is causing widespread, adverse impacts to societies, economies and infrastructures. Climate risk analysis is essential to inform policy decisions aimed at reducing risk. Yet, access to data is often a barrier, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Data are often scattered, hard to find, in formats that are difficult to use or requiring considerable technical expertise. Nevertheless, there are global, open datasets which provide some information about climate hazards, society, infrastructure and the economy. This "data starter kit" aims to kickstart the process and act as a starting point for further model development and scenario analysis.

Hazards:

• coastal and river flooding (Ward et al, 2020; Baugh et al, 2024)
• extreme heat and drought (Russell et al 2023, derived from Lange et al, 2020)
• tropical cyclone wind speeds (Russell 2022, derived from Bloemendaal et al 2020 and Bloemendaal et al 2022)

Exposure:

• population (Schiavina et al, 2023)
• built-up area (Pesaresi et al, 2023)
• roads (OpenStreetMap, 2025)
• railways (OpenStreetMap, 2025)
• power plants (Global Energy Observatory et al, 2018)
• power transmission lines (Arderne et al, 2020)

Contextual information:

• elevation (European Union and ESA, 2021)
• land-use and land cover (Copernicus Climate Change Service and Climate Data Store, 2019)
• administrative boundaries from geoBoundaries (Runfola et al., 2020)

The spatial intersection of hazard and exposure datasets is a first step to analyse vulnerability and risk to infrastructure and people.

To learn more about related concepts, there is a free short course available through the Open University on Infrastructure and Climate Resilience. This overview of the course has more details.

These Python libraries may be a useful place to start analysis of the data in the packages produced by this workflow:

• snkit helps clean network data
• nismod-snail is designed to help implement infrastructure exposure, damage and risk calculations

The open-gira repository contains a larger workflow for global-scale open-data infrastructure risk and resilience analysis.

For a more developed example, some of these datasets were key inputs to a regional climate risk assessment of current and future flooding risks to transport networks in East Africa, which has a related online visualisation tool at https://east-africa.infrastructureresilience.org/ and is described in detail in Hickford et al (2023).

References

• Arderne, Christopher, Nicolas, Claire, Zorn, Conrad, & Koks, Elco E. (2020). Data from: Predictive mapping of the global power system using open data [Dataset]. In Nature Scientific Data (1.1.1, Vol. 7, Number Article 19). Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3628142
• Baugh, Calum; Colonese, Juan; D'Angelo, Claudia; Dottori, Francesco; Neal, Jeffrey; Prudhomme, Christel; Salamon, Peter (2024): Global river flood hazard maps. European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) [Dataset] PID: data.europa.eu/89h/jrc-floods-floodmapgl_rp50y-tif
• Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, H. (Hans); Muis, S; Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Aerts, J.C.J.H. (Jeroen) (2020): STORM tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI: 10.4121/12705164.v3
• Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, Hans; Dullaart, Job; Haarsma, R.J. (Reindert); Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Martinez, Andrew B.; et al. (2022): STORM climate change tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI: 10.4121/14510817.v3
• Copernicus Climate Change Service, Climate Data Store, (2019): Land cover classification gridded maps from 1992 to present derived from satellite observation. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS). DOI: 10.24381/cds.006f2c9a (Accessed on 09-AUG-2024)
• Copernicus DEM - Global Digital Elevation Model (2021) DOI: 10.5270/ESA-c5d3d65 (produced using Copernicus WorldDEM™-90 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved)
• Global Energy Observatory, Google, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Enipedia, World Resources Institute. (2018) Global Power Plant Database. Published on Resource Watch and Google Earth Engine; resourcewatch.org/
• Hickford et al (2023) Decision support systems for resilient strategic transport networks in low-income countries – Final Report. Available online: https://transport-links.com/hvt-publications/final-report-decision-support-systems-for-resilient-strategic-transport-networks-in-low-income-countries
• Lange, S., Volkholz, J., Geiger, T., Zhao, F., Vega, I., Veldkamp, T., et al. (2020). Projecting exposure to extreme climate impact events across six event categories and three spatial scales. Earth's Future, 8, e2020EF001616. DOI: 10.1029/2020EF001616
• Natural Earth (2023) Admin 0 Map Units, v5.1.1. [Dataset] Available online: www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/10m-admin-0-details
• OpenStreetMap contributors, Russell T., Thomas F., nismod/datapkg contributors (2025) Road and Rail networks derived from OpenStreetMap. [Dataset] Available at global.infrastructureresilience.org
• Pesaresi M., Politis P. (2023): GHS-BUILT-S R2023A - GHS built-up surface grid, derived from Sentinel2 composite and Landsat, multitemporal (1975-2030) European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID: data.europa.eu/89h/9f06f36f-4b11-47ec-abb0-4f8b7b1d72ea, doi:10.2905/9F06F36F-4B11-47EC-ABB0-4F8B7B1D72EA
• Runfola D, Anderson A, Baier H, Crittenden M, Dowker E, Fuhrig S, et al. (2020) geoBoundaries: A global database of political administrative boundaries. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0231866. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231866.
• Russell, T., Nicholas, C., & Bernhofen, M. (2023). Annual probability of extreme heat and drought events, derived from Lange et al 2020 (Version 2) [Dataset]. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8147088
• Schiavina M., Freire S., Carioli A., MacManus K. (2023): GHS-POP R2023A - GHS population grid multitemporal (1975-2030). European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID: data.europa.eu/89h/2ff68a52-5b5b-4a22-8f40-c41da8332cfe, doi:10.2905/2FF68A52-5B5B-4A22-8F40-C41DA8332CFE
• Ward, P.J., H.C. Winsemius, S. Kuzma, M.F.P. Bierkens, A. Bouwman, H. de Moel, A. Díaz Loaiza, et al. (2020) Aqueduct Floods Methodology. Technical Note. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute. Available online at: www.wri.org/publication/aqueduct-floods-methodology.

This starter data kit collects extracts from global, open datasets relating to climate hazards and infrastructure systems.

These extracts are derived from global datasets which have been clipped to the national scale (or subnational, in cases where national boundaries have been split, generally to separate outlying islands or non-contiguous regions), using Natural Earth (2023) boundaries, and is not meant to express an opinion about borders, territory or sovereignty.

Human-induced climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of climate and weather extremes. This is causing widespread, adverse impacts to societies, economies and infrastructures. Climate risk analysis is essential to inform policy decisions aimed at reducing risk. Yet, access to data is often a barrier, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Data are often scattered, hard to find, in formats that are difficult to use or requiring considerable technical expertise. Nevertheless, there are global, open datasets which provide some information about climate hazards, society, infrastructure and the economy. This "data starter kit" aims to kickstart the process and act as a starting point for further model development and scenario analysis.

Hazards:

• coastal and river flooding (Ward et al, 2020; Baugh et al, 2024)
• extreme heat and drought (Russell et al 2023, derived from Lange et al, 2020)
• tropical cyclone wind speeds (Russell 2022, derived from Bloemendaal et al 2020 and Bloemendaal et al 2022)

Exposure:

• population (Schiavina et al, 2023)
• built-up area (Pesaresi et al, 2023)
• roads (OpenStreetMap, 2025)
• railways (OpenStreetMap, 2025)
• power plants (Global Energy Observatory et al, 2018)
• power transmission lines (Arderne et al, 2020)

Contextual information:

• elevation (European Union and ESA, 2021)
• land-use and land cover (Copernicus Climate Change Service and Climate Data Store, 2019)
• administrative boundaries from geoBoundaries (Runfola et al., 2020)

The spatial intersection of hazard and exposure datasets is a first step to analyse vulnerability and risk to infrastructure and people.

To learn more about related concepts, there is a free short course available through the Open University on Infrastructure and Climate Resilience. This overview of the course has more details.

These Python libraries may be a useful place to start analysis of the data in the packages produced by this workflow:

• snkit helps clean network data
• nismod-snail is designed to help implement infrastructure exposure, damage and risk calculations

The open-gira repository contains a larger workflow for global-scale open-data infrastructure risk and resilience analysis.

For a more developed example, some of these datasets were key inputs to a regional climate risk assessment of current and future flooding risks to transport networks in East Africa, which has a related online visualisation tool at https://east-africa.infrastructureresilience.org/ and is described in detail in Hickford et al (2023).

References

• Arderne, Christopher, Nicolas, Claire, Zorn, Conrad, & Koks, Elco E. (2020). Data from: Predictive mapping of the global power system using open data [Dataset]. In Nature Scientific Data (1.1.1, Vol. 7, Number Article 19). Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3628142
• Baugh, Calum; Colonese, Juan; D'Angelo, Claudia; Dottori, Francesco; Neal, Jeffrey; Prudhomme, Christel; Salamon, Peter (2024): Global river flood hazard maps. European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) [Dataset] PID: data.europa.eu/89h/jrc-floods-floodmapgl_rp50y-tif
• Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, H. (Hans); Muis, S; Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Aerts, J.C.J.H. (Jeroen) (2020): STORM tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI: 10.4121/12705164.v3
• Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, Hans; Dullaart, Job; Haarsma, R.J. (Reindert); Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Martinez, Andrew B.; et al. (2022): STORM climate change tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI: 10.4121/14510817.v3
• Copernicus Climate Change Service, Climate Data Store, (2019): Land cover classification gridded maps from 1992 to present derived from satellite observation. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS). DOI: 10.24381/cds.006f2c9a (Accessed on 09-AUG-2024)
• Copernicus DEM - Global Digital Elevation Model (2021) DOI: 10.5270/ESA-c5d3d65 (produced using Copernicus WorldDEM™-90 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved)
• Global Energy Observatory, Google, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Enipedia, World Resources Institute. (2018) Global Power Plant Database. Published on Resource Watch and Google Earth Engine; resourcewatch.org/
• Hickford et al (2023) Decision support systems for resilient strategic transport networks in low-income countries – Final Report. Available online: https://transport-links.com/hvt-publications/final-report-decision-support-systems-for-resilient-strategic-transport-networks-in-low-income-countries
• Lange, S., Volkholz, J., Geiger, T., Zhao, F., Vega, I., Veldkamp, T., et al. (2020). Projecting exposure to extreme climate impact events across six event categories and three spatial scales. Earth's Future, 8, e2020EF001616. DOI: 10.1029/2020EF001616
• Natural Earth (2023) Admin 0 Map Units, v5.1.1. [Dataset] Available online: www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/10m-admin-0-details
• OpenStreetMap contributors, Russell T., Thomas F., nismod/datapkg contributors (2025) Road and Rail networks derived from OpenStreetMap. [Dataset] Available at global.infrastructureresilience.org
• Pesaresi M., Politis P. (2023): GHS-BUILT-S R2023A - GHS built-up surface grid, derived from Sentinel2 composite and Landsat, multitemporal (1975-2030) European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID: data.europa.eu/89h/9f06f36f-4b11-47ec-abb0-4f8b7b1d72ea, doi:10.2905/9F06F36F-4B11-47EC-ABB0-4F8B7B1D72EA
• Runfola D, Anderson A, Baier H, Crittenden M, Dowker E, Fuhrig S, et al. (2020) geoBoundaries: A global database of political administrative boundaries. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0231866. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231866.
• Russell, T., Nicholas, C., & Bernhofen, M. (2023). Annual probability of extreme heat and drought events, derived from Lange et al 2020 (Version 2) [Dataset]. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8147088
• Schiavina M., Freire S., Carioli A., MacManus K. (2023): GHS-POP R2023A - GHS population grid multitemporal (1975-2030). European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID: data.europa.eu/89h/2ff68a52-5b5b-4a22-8f40-c41da8332cfe, doi:10.2905/2FF68A52-5B5B-4A22-8F40-C41DA8332CFE
• Ward, P.J., H.C. Winsemius, S. Kuzma, M.F.P. Bierkens, A. Bouwman, H. de Moel, A. Díaz Loaiza, et al. (2020) Aqueduct Floods Methodology. Technical Note. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute. Available online at: www.wri.org/publication/aqueduct-floods-methodology.

This starter data kit collects extracts from global, open datasets relating to climate hazards and infrastructure systems.

These extracts are derived from global datasets which have been clipped to the national scale (or subnational, in cases where national boundaries have been split, generally to separate outlying islands or non-contiguous regions), using Natural Earth (2023) boundaries, and is not meant to express an opinion about borders, territory or sovereignty.

Human-induced climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of climate and weather extremes. This is causing widespread, adverse impacts to societies, economies and infrastructures. Climate risk analysis is essential to inform policy decisions aimed at reducing risk. Yet, access to data is often a barrier, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Data are often scattered, hard to find, in formats that are difficult to use or requiring considerable technical expertise. Nevertheless, there are global, open datasets which provide some information about climate hazards, society, infrastructure and the economy. This "data starter kit" aims to kickstart the process and act as a starting point for further model development and scenario analysis.

Hazards:

coastal and river flooding (Ward et al, 2020)

extreme heat and drought (Russell et al 2023, derived from Lange et al, 2020)

tropical cyclone wind speeds (Russell 2022, derived from Bloemendaal et al 2020 and Bloemendaal et al 2022)

Exposure:

population (Schiavina et al, 2023)

built-up area (Pesaresi et al, 2023)

roads (OpenStreetMap, 2023)

railways (OpenStreetMap, 2023)

power plants (Global Energy Observatory et al, 2018)

power transmission lines (Arderne et al, 2020)

The spatial intersection of hazard and exposure datasets is a first step to analyse vulnerability and risk to infrastructure and people.

To learn more about related concepts, there is a free short course available through the Open University on Infrastructure and Climate Resilience. This overview of the course has more details.

These Python libraries may be a useful place to start analysis of the data in the packages produced by this workflow:

snkit helps clean network data



nismod-snail is designed to help implement infrastructure
exposure, damage and risk calculations

The open-gira repository contains a larger workflow for global-scale open-data infrastructure risk and resilience analysis.

For a more developed example, some of these datasets were key inputs to a regional climate risk assessment of current and future flooding risks to transport networks in East Africa, which has a related online visualisation tool at https://east-africa.infrastructureresilience.org/ and is described in detail in Hickford et al (2023).

References

Arderne, Christopher, Nicolas, Claire, Zorn, Conrad, & Koks, Elco E. (2020). Data from: Predictive mapping of the
global power system using open data [Dataset]. In Nature Scientific Data (1.1.1, Vol. 7, Number Article 19). Zenodo.
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3628142



Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, H. (Hans); Muis, S; Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Aerts, J.C.J.H. (Jeroen) (2020): STORM tropical
cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI:
10.4121/12705164.v3



Bloemendaal, Nadia; de Moel, Hans; Dullaart, Job; Haarsma, R.J. (Reindert); Haigh, I.D. (Ivan); Martinez, Andrew B.;
et al. (2022): STORM climate change tropical cyclone wind speed return periods. 4TU.ResearchData. [Dataset]. DOI:
10.4121/14510817.v3



Global Energy Observatory, Google, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Enipedia, World Resources
Institute. (2018) Global Power Plant Database. Published on Resource Watch and Google Earth Engine;
resourcewatch.org/



Hickford et al (2023) Decision support systems for resilient strategic transport networks in low-income countries
– Final Report. Available online:
https://transport-links.com/hvt-publications/final-report-decision-support-systems-for-resilient-strategic-transport-networks-in-low-income-countries



Lange, S., Volkholz, J., Geiger, T., Zhao, F., Vega, I., Veldkamp, T., et al. (2020). Projecting exposure to extreme
climate impact events across six event categories and three spatial scales. Earth's Future, 8, e2020EF001616. DOI:
10.1029/2020EF001616



Natural Earth (2023) Admin 0 Map Units, v5.1.1. [Dataset] Available online:
www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/10m-admin-0-details



OpenStreetMap contributors, Russell T., Thomas F., nismod/datapkg contributors (2023) Road and Rail networks derived
from OpenStreetMap. [Dataset] Available at
global.infrastructureresilience.org



Pesaresi M., Politis P. (2023): GHS-BUILT-S R2023A - GHS built-up surface grid, derived from Sentinel2 composite and
Landsat, multitemporal (1975-2030) European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID:
data.europa.eu/89h/9f06f36f-4b11-47ec-abb0-4f8b7b1d72ea, doi:10.2905/9F06F36F-4B11-47EC-ABB0-4F8B7B1D72EA



Russell, T., Nicholas, C., & Bernhofen, M. (2023). Annual probability of extreme heat and drought events, derived
from Lange et al 2020 (Version 2) [Dataset]. Zenodo. DOI:
10.5281/zenodo.8147088



Schiavina M., Freire S., Carioli A., MacManus K. (2023): GHS-POP R2023A - GHS population grid multitemporal
(1975-2030). European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) PID:
data.europa.eu/89h/2ff68a52-5b5b-4a22-8f40-c41da8332cfe, doi:10.2905/2FF68A52-5B5B-4A22-8F40-C41DA8332CFE



Ward, P.J., H.C. Winsemius, S. Kuzma, M.F.P. Bierkens, A. Bouwman, H. de Moel, A. Díaz Loaiza, et al. (2020)
Aqueduct Floods Methodology. Technical Note. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute. Available online at:
www.wri.org/publication/aqueduct-floods-methodology.