Big data has big potential for application to climate change adaptation

This paper examines how “big data” can inform adaptation research and decision-making and outlines what is needed from the adaptation community to maximise this opportunity. The authors contend that careful application of big data could revolutionise the understanding of how to manage the risks of climate change.

The publication concludes that big data are no panacea, but if carefully used, they provide an enormous and untapped opportunity to diversify our understanding of adaptation and inform decision-making. The authors propose the following:

• Scientists investigating adaptation must reach out to data scientists who have the skills to clean, organise, link, manage, and analyse massive datasets.
• Adaptation specialists must work with data engineers to design information systems to scrape, collect, and sort data.
• In the longer term, more diversified training of adaptation scholars and practitioners to be literate in big data analytics is required.
• Funders could invest in demonstration projects that bring together data scientists, adaptation researchers, and decision makers to examine the feasibility of big data approaches and illustrate what’s possible.

PNAS, Vol. 113, No. 39.