As part of Global Pulse’s “Rapid Impact and Vulnerability Assessment Fund,” the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) undertook a project with the overall goal of better understanding how space-based information, reports, and quantitative data can aid in understanding the effect of the global economic crisis on populations that are vulnerable to disasters of natural origins.
This project has two basic ideas: First, it is based on the hypothesis that the global economic crisis created a set of unique, previously unexamined circumstances that have negatively affected livelihoods increasing poverty conditions and subsequently increasing vulnerability to natural disasters. Second, the project is based on the idea that integrating multiple sources of existing information could lead researchers to new insights on this issue. Thus, this project integrates data, maps and documents from government sources, regional and international organizations to understand how the global economic crisis affected a population’s ability to cope with the impacts of natural disasters, using Guatemala and Mexico as case studies.
View or download the full summary report below:
