Blog posts

2019

Using Twitter data to correlate power grid malfunctions

4 minute read

Published:

There’s an increasing excitement about using new technologies - like social media and ‘big data’ - in research about disasters and emergencies. There are a large number of possible ways of approaching this question, though, so developing these methods first requires ‘pilot’ attempts at testing whether they actually work. In this post, I’ll explore an article - “Embracing Human Noise as a Resilience Indicator: Twitter as Power Grid Correlate” - that attempts a proof-of-concept for one way of applying these tweets.

Examining bushfire policy in action: Preparedness and behaviour

7 minute read

Published:

The past three years have felt remarkable for Canadian and North American observers of wildfire. In Canada, the Fort McMurray fire in 2016 was followed by two frantic years in British Columbia, each establishing records for area burnt. In the US, California has dominated the fire scene with blazes like the Mendocino Complex, Tubbs, and Camp making the flames visible and visceral to the public. This built towards a climax in and around Paradise, California, where over eighty people lost their lives in November 2018.

Clarifying Wildfire & Public Values

8 minute read

Published:

The term “values” is perhaps one of the most muddled and confusing terms in wildfire management discussions today. Sometimes it’s used to refer to tangible things, as in “we should send a crew to do values protection” (i.e., we should send firefighters to protect that house). Other times it’s used to talk about slightly more abstract - but still physical things - like the habitat of a particular species, land used for hunting, or a kind of ecosystem. And, in other situations, it’s even more ambiguous, being used to describe things like what the public “values” (i.e., priorities like preventing smoke or reducing house loses or access to old growth landscapes).

Introducing the Blog

4 minute read

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I don’t like “hot takes.” In fact, I think the world is worse for having hot takes.