To promote the collaborative research with BRI countries on space technology for disaster mitigation in 2020, SDIM worked with them to collect “localized” data in different ways (e.g. collaborative experiment). For example, SDIM conducted a collaborative research with Nepal in landslides and Pakistan in floods, so as to improve the research capabilities by collaborative experiments.

Landslide distribution in Nepal (2015-2019)

Spatial distribution of floods in Pakistan (2015-2019)

Figure 1 Collaborative research with BRI countries on space technology for disaster mitigation

Moreover, SDIM integrated spatial information of disasters based on EM-DAT to comply with SDGs13.1.1, a SDG index for 2015-2019. A new method was proposed to estimate the changes in SDG indexes based on trend analysis. A total of 72 countries with comprehensive data in disaster databases were selected to monitor the changes in global disaster-affected population since the SDGs agenda was launched, such as the changes in time dimension, space dimension, key nodes and key areas.

The findings show that the countries with greater SDG 13.1.1 improvement were mainly located in Asia and Africa. For example, the SDG 13.1.1 in China, Bangladesh and Tajikistan was significantly improved, while the SDG 13.1.1 in Indonesia, Thailand, Uganda and Ethiopia was moderately improved. The countries with worsened SDG 13.1.1 were mainly located in Africa, but a handful of Asian countries also showed a worsening trend. For example, the SDG 13.1.1 in Namibia, Malawi and Philippines was significantly worsened, while the SDG 13.1.1 in Cambodia, South Africa, Nepal and Senegal was moderately worsened. The vast majority of European countries did not show significant changes in SDG 13.1.1.

The BRI Research Report of SDIM – the variation trend of SDG13.1.1 in 73 BRI countries (2015-2019)