DAKAR, 16 August 2013 (IRIN) - Mobile phone, geographic information systems (GIS), Twitter and other technologies are increasingly being used to warn communities of potential crises and inform them how to prepare, and to help governments and aid agencies predict how emergencies may unfold. 

IRIN looks at some of the ways these innovations are transforming early warning and preparedness. 

Market monitoring 

Five thousand metres above the most biodiverse corner of the Amazon, tropical ecologist Greg Asner and his team see a kaleidoscope of colours among a mass of green.

Huddled in a twin-engine Dornier 228 aeroplane called the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, the scientists are capturing multicoloured images of the Peruvian rainforest canopy that verge on the psychedelic.

Written by Jeff Thurston

Water is valuable, but clean water that people can drink has greater value. Some regions have an abundance of clean water, and others have do not – a geographic factor. In other places pressure on natural ecosystems that generate water are placing great stress on ecosystems, often overwhelming them. The production of clean water is a result of the protection and stewardship of natural ecosystems, but also the result of efficient and effective management.  And, on that basis geospatial technologies have a large role to play.