How open data is being used to hack climate change | Media Network | Guardian Professional

"In February the UK was hit by some of the worst storms in recent memory. Flood maps showed that huge areas of the Somerset Levels and the Thames valley were underwater, and whole communities were cut off for days at a time. But it wasn't just our flood defences that were lacking – one of the toughest challenges during the floods was providing people in affected areas with up-to-date information. 'I've been studying the graphs on the Environment Agency website trying to work out what they mean,' Jeremy Langford told the Guardian in February as he tried to make up his mind whether to evacuate his home in the village of Moorland in favour of higher ground. 'I'm sure somebody knows what the water is doing but if they do they aren't getting the message over to us.' The Environment Agency finally caved in to mounting pressure to release some of its flood data for free, and the UK's tech community cobbled together flood relief apps over a long weekend in mid February at Flood Hack, an impromptu hackathon hosted by Google's collaborative workspace in East London."