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RiskScape™ - an open source solution to better manage significant risks
Learn how RiskScape an open source flexible modelling engine processes geospatial data for risk analysis.
GNS Science and NIWA are both Crown Research Institutes. GNS Science’s purpose is to understand natural Earth system processes and resources and translate these into economic, environmental and social benefits. NIWA’s mission is to conduct leading environmental science to enable the sustainable management of natural resources for New Zealand and the planet.
GNS Science and NIWA development teams built an app and released the RiskScape™ project, which has been around since 2004. This version of RiskScape™ contributed to multiple research projects and informed many natural hazard risk decisions over the years. However, it did have limitations from being built on technologies from the early 2000s and included hard-coded data, making the system inflexible.
Opportunity
Catalyst was already working at GeoNet, so the RiskScape™ Governance Group asked us for an independent review of the RiskScape™ software. We reviewed both the code and what actions were happening governance-wise. One of Catalyst’s suggestions was to use a third-party development team and maximise the opportunities to use the expertise and skill set that a specialist development partner brings. GNS and NIWA went to market for the software upgrade project, and Catalyst won the tender.
RiskScape™ is open source software with a flexible modelling engine for processing geospatial data for risk analysis. It is highly customisable and can process multiple hazards and their relationships. For example, how might flood depth affect a timber-framed house on a concrete base compared with a brick house on a timber base, and what the additional impact of the flow rate is. To make these calculations data can be input from a raster image that shows the depth of flooding and vector data containing building footprint and construction information. Then you can ask, what are the adverse consequences for houses exposed to flooding?
Scientists could run these calculations longhand by using data and writing their own scripts, but RiskScape™ uses advanced geospatial processing functionality with native support for multiple data types to assist natural hazards experts with their risk analysis. Scientists can either:
- defining their models themselves using the RiskScape™ expression language, Java and Python
- using a step-by-step wizard that takes them through a more guided process.
Solution
One of the things Catalyst did at the beginning was take everyone on the project through our Agile and Product Owners Fundamentals training. The training provided an opportunity to think about how we were going to work together, and we were able to practise that. Plus, it gave GNS and NIWA insight into how we work, and we could learn each other’s jargon to help the project run smoother. The Agile methodology fits well with scientific methods as you have an idea, implement it, measure the impact, and then make changes.
After development started, it became clear other organisations and people were interested in using the software outside of NIWA and GNS. EQC (now known as the Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake) approached GNS to come on board as a funder. EQC wanted to replace its existing modelling tool, Minerva, with RiskScape™.
RiskScape use cases
RiskScape™ has many potential uses. It has been utilised recently for land-use planning decision-making. Regional councils contract GNS and NIWA to find out if it’s safe to build; will a location and buildings be exposed to natural hazards like landslides or flooding?
Helping find out where it's safe to build
The Earthquake Commission (EQC)(external link) uses RiskScape™ to analyse New Zealand’s residential building stock’s exposure to earthquakes.
“RiskScape’s™ flexible design allows many sectors, such as land-use planners, asset managers, emergency managers and insurance providers, to better manage the significant risks from natural hazards that Aotearoa faces now and into the future.”
- Richard Woods, Project Lead, GNS Science
Vital for New Zealand’s physical and economic security
Understanding natural hazards and their potential impact is vital for New Zealand’s physical and economic security. Loss modelling helps EQC understand the impact of a disaster by providing realistic estimates of likely damage and loss. Plus, it can post-event model to provide near-real-time loss estimates and the spread of damage. These insights enable the insurance and emergency response sector to quickly understand the scale and spread of damage after an event. Additionally, Riskscape can model potential natural disaster scenarios to plan how to respond, build community resilience, and set the EQC levy rate.
International support
The sophisticated risk-modelling tool was used when the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai volcano erupted in Tonga in January 2022, sending ash into the upper atmosphere and triggering a destructive tsunami.
Analysing the impact of events in real-time
Scientists feed in data about the volcanic ash fall and model the impacts of three hazards: the ash fall, tsunami, and sonic boom, so when communications were re-established with Tonga, they could provide that data. Plus, RiskScape helped inform aid agencies globally to gauge what level of aid they needed to send to Tonga.
Contributing to other open source projects
Catalyst has also been able to contribute to other open source projects as part of this work. For example, our team found bugs in some of the libraries we use (such as GeoTools), so we fixed those and contributed the code upstream. Sometimes, changes couldn’t go upstream, and in that case, we published the codebases on the RiskScape™ site in the documentation for people to download and use.
Get started with RiskScape
Catalyst continues to work on enhancements and more feature developments for RiskScape™ as part of our ongoing relationship with NIWA and GNS Science. While RiskScape™ is highly technical science software for a specific user group, the things it’s used for have a big impact on all New Zealanders. Contact us to learn more about Riskscape.