Locations
Collective Intelligence In Climate Adaptation
Collective Intelligence in Climate Adaptation
The Global South is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and many countries are already experiencing dire consequences such as more frequent flooding, longer droughts and extreme heat. An estimated 3.3 billion people already live in places that are highly vulnerable to climate change – and this is set to grow.
The most successful adaptation initiatives help to reduce vulnerabilities and build community or ecosystem resilience in the face of a warming planet, whilst supporting sustainable development pathways. With the world off track to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, adaptation is increasingly critical.
Examples of climate adaptation initiatives:
Our analysis of collective intelligence case studies revealed that most initiatives focused primarily on climate adaptation versus climate mitigation. Given the focus of this report on the Global South which has historically lower emissions, this is not entirely surprising.
We found examples of five collective intelligence use cases:
Addressing data gaps is often the main focus of these initiatives, specifically providing measurements about weather, different species and climate-related disasters with geographical granularity and real-time precision. Several examples share these data directly with the people involved, to address frontline doing gaps. For example, smallholder farmers with access to better data about weather and/or climate-resilient crop varieties are able to take smarter individual actions. While in cities, sharing data about the real-time spread of extreme weather events like flooding, or the risks that lead to disease outbreaks helps people take coordinated action to reduce the impact of crises. Several initiatives also demonstrate more inclusive technology development, helping to address the diversity gap. Digital technology developed together with local and Indigenous Peoples, is helping to elevate the adaptation actions taken by these groups and help them to secure funding or influence decisions.
Below is a summary overview of the four climate adaptation areas where most current collective intelligence practice is concentrated alongside the key methods and climate action gaps that are addressed. These are described in detail in the text that follows.
IPCC adaptation categories enabled by collective intelligence | Main collective intelligence methods being used | Main climate action gaps being addressed |
|---|---|---|
Improved cropland management
| Citizen science and open repositories for climate resilient crops Peer exchange for climate smart agriculture Combining sensor data and citizen-generated data for intelligent networked actions |
|
Biodiversity management | Participatory sensing for biodiversity monitoring in hard-to-reach locations Citizen science to scale and fast track biodiversity data collection Crowdsourcing Indigenous knowledge to identify rare biodiversity events |
|
Disaster risk management | Combining citizen-generated data with official data or sensor data Crowdsourcing data and collaborative modeling to improve scientific models of flood risks | |
Health and health systems adaptation | Citizen science for disease surveillance and management Combining citizen-generated data and existing datasets to model disease outbreaks Participatory sensing to measure extreme heat in cities Open innovation for inclusive solutions to extreme heat |
|
It is increasingly recognized that adaptation needs to happen at the local level to ensure long-term success, but most adaptation planning so far has been carried out at the national or international level. The collective intelligence initiatives described below are, on paper, one way of bridging local action and national planning.
71 case studies out of 106.