One of the most important goals of ThinkHazard! is to help users manage disaster risk in their projects, not only to identify the hazard level. This guidance takes the form of:
- recommendations on how to address the risk from each hazard;
- links to further resources, such as other data sources, reports on risk management options, or risk analyses relevant to that hazard and/or location; and
- Contacts information of organizations working on the hazard in that country.
ThinkHazard! displays hazard level for selected locations, not risk level (it does not estimate risk based on exposure and vulnerability to hazard). However, to maximize utility for user, technical recommendations are provided describing actions to be taken to manage risk to the project, based upon the classified hazard level. The recommendations have been developed by external experts in each hazard, consulted for this project. The recommendations are project agnostic (not specific to any project type or sector such as education, agriculture, or sanitation).
Recommendations comprise a short summary statement, which is shown on the user interface, and a more detailed description of risk management actions, which is accessed by clicking on the ‘more information’ link at the end of each summary statement. The recommendations have been developed to provide guidance in non-technical language, and to provide practical actions specific to each hazard.
A recommendation may be repeated for more than one hazard category, but higher hazard categories generally have a greater number of recommendations, comprising a greater number of, or the more serious, actions required to manage the highest level of hazard. Each technical recommendation comprises a short summary, which is presented on the user interface, and a more detailed section that can be accessed by clicking the hyperlinked short title. The technical recommendations cover subjects such as seeking professional guidance, considering early warning systems, or not increasing the hazard through the actions of the project. Please see the user interface for examples.
The user interface includes a section providing further resources to the user. This comprises links to documents, analytical tools and websites that provide information relevant to the hazard and selected location. The resources may provide information on previous projects in the area, general advice on managing risk to a hazard, or provide a link to relevant agencies and tools for further analysis.
All resources are stored on the same GeoNode as hazard data layers, and imported to ThinkHazard! for display. The resources are filtered by hazard and location, according to their metadata, and are displayed in chronological order in the user interface. A user downloads or accesses a link via the GeoNode record for that document.
Contact information has been compiled for every country and hazard included in ThinkHazard!. This comprises organization name, website URL, telephone and email address, for up to three organizations per hazard and country. This list was last compiled in early 2017. It will be periodically reviewed and updated as new versions of ThinkHazard! are developed.
Hazard level information, map, risk recommendations, further resources and contact information for all hazards and a single location can be downloaded as a .pdf document. The ‘download pdf’ button is available on all overview and hazard pages.
User feedback is a vital component of ongoing improvements and updates to ThinkHazard!. Users can provide feedback on any topic concerning the tool, via a link to a feedback form, available in the header of the user interface. Feedback is provided via a short series of questions in a Google Form. The administrator notified, and will action any required changes and log requests for new features, responding to the feedback provider as appropriate. Users can propose additions or amendments to resources or hazard data, and can highlight where hazard levels do not match expectations. If the feedback concerns new data for use in the tool, the administrator will follow up to review the data suitability for ThinkHazard!.
ThinkHazard! is currently available in three languages: English, French and Spanish. All components of the tool are available in these languages, except for the feedback form (English only). The language toggle button is in the header of every page on the user interface. Translation has been conducted by World Bank translators, using Transifex.com.
A global map of data coverage is provided via a link in the header bar. This show, for each hazard, the availability of different levels of hazard data. Clicking on a country provides a list of each available data set.
A page of non-technical FAQs is available to users via a link on the header bar.
The ThinkHazard! API enables extraction of hazard levels, recommendations, further information and contacts, into code for re-use in other tools. The API instructions are at thinkhazard/API.md at master · GFDRR/thinkhazard.
ThinkHazard! is available under the GNU General Public Licence, Version 3, 29 June 2007. Text content is licensed under CC-BY-SA. Classified hazard levels are licensed under CC-BY. Original hazard data are licensed under their original terms, which are contained in the associated layer metadata.