Audio: Joshua Busby on Mapping Hotspots of Climate and Security Vulnerability
Maps help us to grasp complex ideas, such as patterns of risk and vulnerability, but the stories they tell can have significant implications. “It’s very difficult to validate that what you’re capturing in the maps is representative of real-world phenomenon,” says Joshua Busby in this week’s “Backdraft” episode, describing his efforts to map climate and security hotspots in Africa and Asia. “You have to be modest in what you think the maps can tell policymakers, but also realize there is some seductive power in the way maps simplify complex reality.”
The maps produced by Busby’s Climate Change and African Political Stability and Complex Emergencies and Political Stability projects are designed to help planners, donors, and national governments “shore up resilience on the ground.”
“The real question that we have to ask and answer all the time is, ‘Do the maps have any basis in reality? Are they useful?’” says Busby, associate professor from the LBJ School at the University of Texas, Austin.
UNU-WIDER