Managing information and data for a more resilient New Zealand
The data integration and visualisation en masse (DIVE) platform: lessons learned and future pathways
Becca Fraser, Joanne Stevenson, Elora Kay
Resilience to Nature's Challenge Report
Overview
The Data Integration and Visualisation En Masse (DIVE) pilot project was funded by the NZ Centre for Earthquake Resilience (QuakeCoRE) and the Resilience to Nature’s Challenges (RNC) National Science Challenge – Kia manawaroa – Nā Ākina o Te Ao Tūroa, to improve researchers’ ability to address complex social problems, enabling New Zealand to become more resilient through data sharing, improved access to public data sources, and the analysis and visualisation of integrated data sets. The pilot project consisted of an initial consultation phase (a survey of researchers and research stakeholders and a series of workshops), the development and testing of a beta version of a web-based open data catalogue for disaster risk reduction (DRR) and resilience research and information, and an uptake enhancement project.
The consultation phase of the project provided an assessment of the data and data management needs of New Zealand DRR and resilience research stakeholders (more on the consultation workshops and their outputs can be found in Stevenson et al. (2016), Stevenson & Vargo (2016), and Stevenson et al. (2017)). The workshops established the research stakeholder needs and facilitated the development of use cases for a DRR and resilience information management system, which then served as the foundation for a small project to develop the web-based NZ Resilience DIVE Platform. A beta version of the DIVE platform was launched in June 2018 to assess the ability of an open metadata catalogue to help unify New Zealand’s disjointed landscape of disaster risk reduction (DRR) and resilience information. Researchers from QuakeCoRE and RNC were invited to catalogue, discover, share, and use DRR and resilience data on the platform with the aim of improving resilience-related decision-making, enhancing problem-solving, and innovation.
While the web-based DIVE Platform could meet the demand for data cataloguing and improving metadata capture, incentivising stakeholders to engage with the platform and use its capabilities was challenging. The uptake enhancement phase of the project showed two major barriers to engagement with the DIVE Platform: inadequate incentives for use and concerns about the lack of longevity of the platform. Funding for the DIVE pilot project has now finished, and this report offers a final reflection on the lessons learned from the development and implementation of the DIVE Platform, and an exploration of future development pathways for collaborative management of DRR and resilience information in New Zealand.