In a world where opinions are polarised and false facts spread quickly, there’s increasing demand for trusted and timely data. We’re working with a partnership that’s led by the World Resources Institute to fulfill this demand and give people fast access to reliable, trustworthy data about our planet. With more than 30 organisations contributing their data, expertise and skills, we took responsibility for the user research, design and development of the platform.
Resource Watch is made possible by the world’s rapid advances in open data and technology. Cloud computing and Big Data has allowed us publish and access millions of datasets but that also presents a problem: how do we find the data we need? Resource Watch brings together hundreds of data sets in one place and makes it easier for researchers, analysts, journalists, policymakers and citizens to find, understand and share the information they need. It has been accessed in hundreds of countries and by thousands of people around the world.
Researchers at the Nature Conservancy and the University of Minnesota have used Resource Watch data to build maps on the global development potential for renewable energy, fossil fuels, mining and agriculture sectors. These maps help evaluate trade-offs between conservation and human development.
Services like Google Cloud Engine and Amazon Web Services allow us to remotely access data sets from many different sources and tap into them when we need them. To access them all in a standard way you need an Application Programming Interface (API). We built the API that connects Resource Watch to all of the data sets you can find there, and we did it with open source technology so anyone can create new functionalities, add to it, and reuse it in other places. Right now, the Resource Watch API is being used to share data with Global Forest Watch and PREP, the Water Peace and Security Initiative, as well as other developing platforms.
Curated by WRI experts, all the data is open, accessible and free so anyone can use it to understand the challenges that affect our society and planet. In our interconnected world, the problems we experience are often linked to one another and Resource Watch helps us explore how they are connected by overlaying data sets. In addition to being able to create, share and embed interactive maps from Resource Watch, users can also make custom charts and graphs. We used Vega to support the creation of custom visualisations. The ability to overlay and visualise data, combined with the fact that all of the data has been vetted for quality and timeliness, makes Resource Watch a powerful tool for discovery and data-driven storytelling.
Read powerful data-driven stories by Resource Watch and their partners.
Learn about best practices for overlaying data and finding connections on Resource Watch.
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Gina McCarthy; Former Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Director, Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment
Rebecca Moore, Director of Engineering, Google Earth, Earth Engine and Earth Outreach, Google
Soils Revealed.
