Quoted from International Journalists Network I wrote it Asmaa Qandeel, on Oct 18, 2023

Journalists can now produce data-driven stories about natural disasters and earthquakes by leveraging open databases that will inspire them with new story ideas and deepen their story angle. Not only that, they can also include ready-made graphs on these sites or create graphs based on the nature of the variables and information in their stories.

In this article, the International Journalists Network takes you on a tour of a set of useful tools and websites that will help you produce data-driven stories about natural disasters and earthquakes, shared with us by investigative journalist Maha Saladin.

Steps to produce data-driven stories

She pointed out Maha Saladin Head of Data Journalism and Fact-Checking Unit at “Masrawy“We can find data from various sources such as images, videos, documents, and numbers. In general, you can follow the following seven steps to produce “data-driven stories”, as follows:

-The first step is to come up with the idea: A journalist can produce various journalistic forms and templates such as: a data-driven investigation or a data-driven report. As for disasters and earthquakes, they are events characterized by their speed and the flow of news related to them, and therefore they must be covered in all journalistic forms. There are four axes that we deal with in data journalism: “the size of the problem”, “the cause of the problem”, “the result of the problem”, and “solutions”. There are examples of journalistic topics that reveal these aspects such as:

  • The size of the problem: We find it in the news published on the website “MasrawyTitled: Earthquakes today..which monitors the number of earthquakes over a 24-hour period, their strength, and their locations.
  • The result of the problem: We find it in the report published on the website “ProPublicaRegarding the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey in the city of Houston, the site published 10 maps showing an analysis of the extent of the destruction and the people affected by the hurricane. You can read the report by clicking here.
  • Solutions to the problem: We find them in the report published on the website “ProPublicaAbout compensation for owners of homes destroyed by the hurricane. You can read the report by clicking here.

The second step is to find the right data for your story.

-The third step is to get the data.

-The fourth step is the data cleaning process.

-The fifth step is to analyze the data you got from the data sources.

-The sixth step is to visually represent the data by choosing the appropriate graphs for your story.

Step 7 is to write your data-driven story.

Open Source for Data-Driven Stories on Earthquakes and Natural Disasters 

–Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED)It was created with initial support from the World Health Organization and the Belgian government. It is one of the useful data sources for serving humanity at the national and international levels. It contains an important database of more than 22,000 global disasters from 1900 to date, revealing their causes and effects at various levels. This data was collected from various sources such as: United Nations organizations, non-governmental organizations, insurance companies, research centers, and news agencies.

The research center provides detailed databases. During 2023, a group of natural disasters occurred for which databases are available on the site, such as: “Forest fires in Alberta, Canada,” “Floods and landslides in the South Kivu region,” “Volcanic eruption in Guatemala,” and Storm “Matis” which caused damage in various places in France. The site also provides a service to know the natural and technological disasters that occurred on a weekly basis, and you can view this by clicking here.

The site also contains a section Publications Which provides users with the ability to browse “books and scientific journals”, “conference papers”, “newsletters”, and “various working papers”. You can benefit from the “pdf” file that documents the toll of natural disasters that occurred in various parts of the world during the year 2022, which the site estimated at 387 disasters, by clicking here.

The site contains: maps For twelve countries, it shows the size of natural disasters and their effects, and the most deadly ones. For example, the map of Brazil indicates that it was exposed to 65 floods, which represented approximately 71% of the recorded disasters. Floods are considered one of the most deadly types of disasters there. You can view these maps by clicking here.

-Earthquake mapUSGSThe US Geological Survey shows the size and intensity of earthquakes in the United States and neighboring regions. On the left side of the map there are fields that help you find out which earthquake occurred in a particular state, and determine the time and intensity of its occurrence. You can view the map by clicking here.

-“ADRC“: The Asian Disaster Monitoring Center, founded in Kobe, Japan in 1998, aims to build communities that are resilient to disasters. The center provides its services in three languages, including English, and cooperates with international organizations such as: “The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)”, “The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)”, “The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)”, and “The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)”. You can produce data-driven stories by visiting the page “Disaster Reduction in Member States“Which you find in the form of interactive maps or lists of member states, and once you click on the name of the country in the list or on its location on the map, you will see extensive data on the size of natural disasters during time periods that you can specify according to the nature of the topic you are working on. The site also includes an important section on Publications It contains an archive of the disasters that have been monitored. Not only that, but you can also find out the meanings of difficult words by using the natural disaster dictionary by clicking here.

– “UNDRR“: A United Nations observatory or tool for assessing the risks of natural disasters throughout the world. The site contains a database that you can access by clicking hereYou can also view various graphs including maps, pie charts, tables, and graphs that illustrate the extent of disasters in different countries by clicking on here.

-“Our World in Data”: You can browse the “Natural disasters To get detailed data on the size, impact, and location of disasters during the period from 1900 to 2020, the site allows you to download raw data in (CSV) format, and you can browse maps and tables that show important numbers about disasters in each country. The site documents different types of natural disasters, including: earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, forest fires, and ground cracks. You can choose a disaster and learn about its effects, as the site allows you to know the numbers of displaced, dead, and injured as a result of each disaster.

– “CDC“: Mining Disasters Center: This is a huge database that enables you to produce data-driven stories on various topics related to mining disasters during the period from 1839 to the present. You can download the data in pdf or excel sheet format by clicking here.

-“NOAAThe National Centers for Environmental Information, which is a huge database that provides public access to geophysical information, and contains a database on natural disasters such as “tsunamis”, “earthquakes”, and “volcanoes”, and you can view it by clicking here.

-“Flood Observatory“: A global archive documenting major flood events from 1985 to the present.

Tips for Creating Data-Driven Stories About Earthquakes and Natural Disasters  

- To humanize scientific topics and link them to current events.

-Simplify scientific topics for your audience.

- Use reliable sources in your stories.

-Support your topics with the opinions of researchers specializing in the topic you are working on.

-Enrich your story with graphs as they add a lot of appeal to your data-driven story.

- Mention the sources you used in your data-driven story.

 

Main image in this post is licensed under a Creative Commons license on Unsplash via Jason Cordier.