AWS Public Sector Blog
Author: Dr. Ed Kearns
Dr. Ed Kearns is the chief data officer at the nonprofit First Street Foundation. After 15 years of working in the federal government and 10 years as an academic at the University of Miami, he joined First Street to explore new, more effective ways of sharing and using climate change information. From his time as a research professor in oceanography to his role as a senior executive in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Ed has pursued novel ways of using data to unlock new insights and knowledge about our environment.
Understanding wildfire risk in a changing climate with open data and AWS
The First Street Foundation, a nonprofit research and technology group, is committed to making climate risk information accessible, simple to understand, and actionable for individuals, governments, and industry. As part of the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI), AWS invited Dr. Ed Kearns, the chief data officer of First Street Foundation, to share how AWS technologies and open data are supporting their mission to provide accurate and up-to-date information on climate related risks.
Communicating a national flood risk assessment using AWS
The First Street Foundation is dedicated to communicating the flood and inundation risks posed by a changing environment, with an emphasis on allowing Americans to discover and understand those risks. By building awareness, our hope is that every individual is empowered to take steps to reduce their risk exposure to flooding, as well as that of their communities—today and in the future. First Street created a nationwide assessment of flood risk for the CONUS and DC, and is now sharing that assessment through Flood Factor™.