The challenge
Understanding the impacts of climate change
There are challenges when it comes to comprehensively understanding the impacts of climate change on the sustainability of a business. At CSIRO's Data61, we see the primary challenges being accessibility to data, the interoperability of datasets and platforms and the insights derived from big data. Through technologies and capabilities across CSIRO, we take a holistic approach to addressing climate risk.
A screenshot from INDRA, a climate change risk analysis platform that enables decision makers, town planners, local councils and government to adapt and develop smart and resilient infrastructure for future weather events. In this instance, INDRA is predicting how many days in 2030 and 2090 will be above 40 degrees celsius.
In this context, working closely with CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere, we have developed INDRA; a platform technology which encompasses climate change, hazard and vulnerability related inputs from various areas of CSIRO, along with key data inputs from relevant agencies, such as the Bureau of Meteorology and state and city-based planning departments.
Our response
A big data analytics program that delivers data driven critical insights
INDRA is a geospatially enabled big data analytics platform, that allows the integration of a range of relevant datasets, including climate, natural hazards, infrastructure, demographics and economic metrics to provide data driven critical insights. It is cloud enabled and can be accessed via any of the leading cloud providers, and hosted on the web for ease of use and interoperability with other relevant tools.
INDRA has been used by cities and utilities to understand their infrastructure risk, and to plan for future adoption, mitigation and financial de-risking strategies.
The key challenges and advantages of INDRA are:
- Accessibility to and transparency of data
- Interoperability of data
- Magnitude of data and relative insights
- Customisable complex analytics
The results
Access to a range of relevant datasets through effective partnerships
INDRA has a strong history of development with applications related to bushfires, floods (catchment and coastal), erosion and groundwater risks across all levels of government, multiple agencies and corporate partners.
As a result, the team at CSIRO have access to a range of relevant datasets through partnerships with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), state-based environmental and land management agencies such as DELWP and Infrastructure NSW, and from Universities, where relevant.
By visualising and analysing these datasets in a common, federated platform, the end user will be better able to understand the data landscape, and have greater transparency and insight into the modelling and analytics process.