DISTRESS SIGNALS

CONFERENCE ON ACTIONS FOR CLIMATE-INDUCED MIGRATIONHAMBURG, GERMANY, 17 JUNE 2013

Can mobile phones be used to map climate change-induced migration?

Stephen RoddickInternational Centre for Climate Change and Development, Dhaka, Bangladesh

“Human mobility extends in the spatial domain from local travel to international migration, and in the temporal dimension from short-term stays to permanent relocations... Classification and measurement of such phenomena is inevitably complex.”

Martin Bell and Salut Muhidin, ‘Cross National Comparisons of Internal Migration’

UNDP, 2009

1. Manual collection and communication2. Crowd-sourcing via SMS3. Smart phone applications

a. GPS mappingb. Bluetooth scanning

4. Statistical analysis of charging data records (CDRs)

How can we use mobile phones to map human mobility?

Time of callDuration

Sending phoneReceiving phone

Sending towerReceiving tower

Type of call

Statistical analysis of Charging Data Records (CDRs)

Humans are predictable

• Home

• Work

• Friends & Family

• Short-term: flooding and cyclones

• Meso-term: Changing weather patterns

• Long term impacts: sea-level rise agriculture,

fisheries, health

How do climate change impacts affect mobility patterns?

20%

20%

How can we use mobile data to map climate change-related migration?

20%

20%2

0%

20%

• Compare differentially affected populations

• Scale-up to community-level Radius of gyration

• Monitor mobility patterns over time

2 Years 5 Years 10 Years

1. Differential ownership and usage2. Limitations of the methodology3. Obtaining data4. Privacy

1. Scale2. Accuracy3. Building on existing data sources4. Forecasting

OpportunitiesChallenges

THANK YOUStephen Roddicksteveroddick@gmail.comInternational Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dr. David Wrathalldavid.wrathall@gmail.comInstitute for Environment and Human Securityat UN University (UNU-EHS), Bonn, Germany