Indexing climatic and environmental exposure of refugee camps with a case study in East Africa

This study presents a novel approach to systematically measure climatic and environmental exposure in refugee camps using remote sensing and geospatial data. Using a case study of seventeen refugee camps across five countries in East Africa, we develop a climatic and environmental exposure index to quantify each camp’s exposure relative to a population of simulated camp locations within the hosting country. Our results show that seven of seventeen refugee camps are within the upper two quartiles of exposure relative to a simulated population, suggesting that more than six-hundred thousand refugees living in these camps face elevated exposure compared to other potential camp locations. This method stands to improve the process of gathering and analyzing climatic and environmental data on geographically remote humanitarian spaces in a reliable, low-cost, and standardized manner. Automation and refinement of this index could enable real-time updates on climatic and environmental exposure to support decision-making related to disaster risk reduction in refugee camp management.</p

Analysis of instabilities in the Basque Coast Geopark coastal cliffs for its environmentally friendly management (Basque-Cantabrian basin, northern Spain)

Coastal cliffs provide a high landscape value to many natural sites around the world. This means that an ever-increasing number of people are attracted to them. At this point, there is a growing need to manage these spaces from the safety of visitors, but with a view to preserving the environment. With this aim, this paper presents an approach to analyze and manage instabilities in these environments, particularly those subjected to significant anthropic activity, which has been implemented in the cliffs of the Basque Coast Geopark. The starting point is a detailed topographic information, obtained from UAV flights, and the identification on site of unstable elements, including their typology, active source areas, dynamics and reach. From this information, the simulation of rockfall processes, which basically correspond to toppling and infinite slope instabilities favored by differential erosion along the coastline, is approached in two and three dimensions. Results allow the design of precise actions by sectors, according to the energy, height and reach of the detached blocks, including barriers, middle slope actions, ditches and information strategies, depending on the different uses of the sectors. Therefore, this approach leads to a more detailed and environmentally friendly management of these environments. © 2021This study has been carried out by the UPV/EHU Research GroupIT-1029/16 (Government of the Basque Country) in the framework of the strategic project ?Analysis of instabilities in coastal environments of the Basque Country? PES-18/97 (University of the Basque Country) and the collaboration of the Basque Coast Geopark (Geoparkea). Finally, the authors are grateful to the reviewers and the handling editor, for the valuable comments that highly improved the paper

Indexing climatic and environmental exposure of refugee camps with a case study in East Africa

This study presents a novel approach to systematically measure climatic and environmental exposure in refugee camps using remote sensing and geospatial data. Using a case study of seventeen refugee camps across five countries in East Africa, we develop a climatic and environmental exposure index to quantify each camp’s exposure relative to a population of simulated camp locations within the hosting country. Our results show that seven of seventeen refugee camps are within the upper two quartiles of exposure relative to a simulated population, suggesting that more than six-hundred thousand refugees living in these camps face elevated exposure compared to other potential camp locations. This method stands to improve the process of gathering and analyzing climatic and environmental data on geographically remote humanitarian spaces in a reliable, low-cost, and standardized manner. Automation and refinement of this index could enable real-time updates on climatic and environmental exposure to support decision-making related to disaster risk reduction in refugee camp management