The role of open exposure data and reproducible research for

large-area multi-hazard risk applications in economically

developing countries. The case study of Burundi
Piero Campalani, Kathrin Renner, Massimiliano Pittore
Eurac Research, Institute for Earth Observation, Bolzano-Bozen, Italy
 CONTEXT: Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment

IPCC SROC (Abram et al.,

2019)​
23/05/22 Campalani et al., The role of open exposure data: the case of Burundi 4
BURUNDI CASE STUDY
- Area: 28,000 km2
- Population: 12 m
- Multiple natural hazards
- Highly vulnerable population
and economy (90 % agriculture)

Exposed assets discussed here:

o Population
o Road infrastructure

23/05/22 Campalani et al., The role of open exposure data: the case of Burundi 5
 POPULATION
o Lack of authoritative recent high-resolution
population data
o Conducted accuracy assessment of available
global population datasets

Dataset Data Source Reference Spatial National

year resolution total
Worldpop 2020 100m 11,886,577
Estimated total number of
people per grid-cell building
footprints constrained
Facebook 2019 30m 11,161,290
High resolution Density Maps
 
and Demographic Estimates
National Statistic 2008 Admin 8.053.574
Census 2008
Office level 4
National Statistic 2019 Commune 12,044,164
ISTEEBU annual statistics
Office

23/05/22 Campalani et al., The role of open exposure data: the case of Burundi 6
 POPULATION (cont’d)
o Re-calibrated gridded Worldpop dataset to match official figured on province level for 2019

No. of people per 100x100m Population density per admin level 3 No. of people per admin level 3
23/05/22 Campalani et al., The role of open exposure data: the case of Burundi 7
ROADS INFRASTRUCTURE
The importance of the OpenStreetMap (OSM) database

Immediate availability Free software and tools for

High filtering capability converting networks to graphs
23/05/22 Campalani et al., The role of open exposure data: the case of Burundi 9
 ROADS INFRASTRUCTURE
The challenges of using open data

o What to use as validation

reference?
o Which datasets to use as
proxies for validation?
o How to segment the data
(urban Vs rural)?
o Where are possible missing
data/bias?

23/05/22 Campalani et al., The role of open exposure data: the case of Burundi 10
OPEN DATA (vs Authoritative)
Why? Is it preferable? What are the hidden costs?

Free/Open access and sharing. Extra harmonization/validation

Integration with FOSS ecosystem work: completeness, accuracy, …
of tools/services. Relies on volunteers work:
Larger (and faster!) availability unwanted bias
in developing countries. Hard uncertainty estimation

23/05/22 Campalani et al., The role of open exposure data: the case of Burundi 11
CONCLUSIONS
Would we recommend the use of open data of
exposure assets in a risk reduction context in
developing countries?

• Open data well worth the extra cost

• Reliability/accuracy of data overall acceptable for risk
assessment
• More fit for use than authoritative data in highly dynamic
developing countries

23/05/22 Campalani et al., The role of open exposure data: the case of Burundi 12
Thank you for your attention.

CONTACT US
Piero Campalani – piero.campalani@eurac.edu
Kathrin Renner – kathrin.renner@eurac.edu
Massimiliano Pittore – massimiliano.pittore@eurac.edu