Sep 12, 2017 -- Brainnwave believe that people make better decisions if they have quick and simple access to the data they need, at the time they need it. With the catastrophic events of recent natural disasters, the Brainnwave team decided to down tools and see what they could do to help.

Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Irma across the Caribbean and Florida, and the earthquake that struck off the southern coast of Mexico have all left communities grieving for lost relatives and in need of urgent support to rebuild the vital infrastructure of their towns and cities.

In an effort to make this process move as smoothly and quickly as possible, the Edinburgh-based startup has added all the relevant datasets, sourced by the World-wide Human Geography Data Working Group to their Marketplace website from where they can be freely downloaded and used.

This will provide a single point of access to vital information needed by humanitarian organisations and charities as well as first-responders and logistics planners on the ground. Available datasets on the site have been sourced from organisations including the US Geological Survey, the Pacific Disaster Centre, Esri, EU-Copernicus and the United Nations, amongst many others.

An example of the value of this data can be seen in the image which highlights the potential storm surge for properties in Naples, Florida. It identifies which areas and properties are most at risk by combining OpenStreetMap data and predicted storm surge data.

Brainnwave CEO, Steve Coates, explains more about how the datasets will help people and why his company decided to donate the time needed to create this access:

“Scotland seems a long way from the devastation that is destroying lives on the other side of the Atlantic, you can’t help but feel helpless.  When I came into work this morning I asked the team if we should stop everything we are doing and focus everyone’s efforts on doing what we can, as Brainnwave, to help. The team jumped at the chance and have created a single go-to place for these vital datasets to help the humanitarian relief efforts.”

To view the datasets on offer, please visit
www.brainnwave.com/data/disaster-relief