New UN initiative to reduce disaster risk with AI

A new United Nations initiative aims to ensure that advanced digital technologies in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) boost resilience to natural hazards and reduce disaster risks.

The Global Initiative on Resilience to Natural Hazards through AI Solutions is led by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Universal Postal Union (UPU), and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The initiative will explore AI use cases, provide expert guidance, and support research, innovation, and standards development amid increasing climate volatility and disaster risks worldwide.

It also aims to create an AI readiness framework to assess and improve national capacities for using AI in disaster management.

"Technical standards are key to ensuring AI is used safely, responsibly and equitably in disaster management - a field where decisions must be made quickly and carefully," said ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin.

The new initiative will consider seismic, hydrometeorological and other natural hazards, as well as compound or cascading events that can result in disasters.

Participation is open to all interested experts.

"This reinforces our work to promote AI-based resilience through Early Warnings for All - the groundbreaking push to protect everyone on Earth with timely disaster alerts by 2027," Bogdan-Martin said.

The Early Warnings for All subgroup on AI, led by ITU, also involves WMO, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

Keeping up momentum on AI-driven disaster response

The new Global Initiative builds on the work of a focus group launched by ITU, WMO, and UNEP in 2021.

That focus group analysed promising applications of AI for disaster management, curated 27 use cases, and laid the groundwork for new international standards.

Its studies explored AI-enabled advances in data collection and handling, the modelling of natural hazards and disasters, and emergency communications.

Roadmap, glossary and expert guidance

The resulting standardization roadmap outlines relevant existing standards, along with areas of demand to be met by new standards.

The former ITU-WMO-UNEP Focus Group on AI for Natural Disaster Management also delivered a glossary of terms and definitions.

In addition, the group provided expert guidance on curating data sets for AI, the training and evaluation of AI-based models, and integrating AI into disaster-management tools. Examples include tools for alerts and early warnings, forecasting, hazard mapping, and decision-support systems.