Armenia: A Data-Driven Decision Support Tool to Address the Environmental Implications of Migrant Returns to Sending Communities due to the SocioEconomic Impacts of COVID-19

Elements of Innovation

• Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction
• Data, Research and Technology
• Regular Pathways

What is the project about?

Armenia, a mountainous, landlocked country in the South Caucasus, is one of the most vulnerable countries in the region to climate change. The country’s average temperature has risen by more than 1.2°C over the last century and changing climatic patterns have caused the degradation of landscapes, including watersheds and wetlands. Furthermore, the impacts of the COVID19 pandemic have triggered further stress on the ecosystem, also due to the return of Armenian migrants to environmentally fragile and climate-impacted communities of origin.

In the face of those challenges, this project focuses on integrating human mobility considerations into climate change decision-making in the country. Its objective is to assist the national and local authorities in acquiring stronger knowledge, tools and capacities. This includes utilizing new systems and data in an integrated and evidence-based approach to improve climate change adaptation at the national and community levels.

How is the project innovative?

This project's combination of data, technology, research, and its multi-dimensional approach to climate change adaptation makes it a unique effort in advancing resilience and sustainability within the South Caucasus. In particular, the project's innovation is to be recognized in the way it places efficient and state-of-the-art technologies at the center of the response to climate change. It leverages diverse data sets such as gender-disaggregated data on migration, geospatial, environmental, poverty, and vulnerability related data. This is employed alongside information from the Armenia Data Cube, an innovative technology for remote sensing Earth observation and national-level data visualization, that allows for continuous remote environmental monitoring.

The project has enabled the creation of a customized decision-making support tool. It does so by adopting an iterative methodology and bringing together cross-functional teams, and ensuring the tool is user-friendly and easily sustainable for driving climate adaptation. By leveraging technology and data, the initiative deepens comprehension of how migration, environment, and climate change are interconnected, triggering, in turn, the development of targeted policies and encouraging collaboration among relevant government bodies.