IEDRO
International Environmental Data Rescue Organization
The Problem
Climate change has arrived at our doorsteps: natural disasters have increased tenfold since the 1960s. Floods, mudslides, and hurricanes destroy homes. Droughts cause famine worldwide.
If nothing is done, more lives will be lost in catastrophic events, even in previously ‘safe’ areas.
Scientists need on average 100 years of location-specific data to accurately spot trends towards these natural disasters. Better information on events in our past helps save lives today.
Finding a Way Out
Luckily, people all over the world have been collecting information about the environment for decades, even centuries.
Unfortunately, these old records are typically on paper forms. Paper records are vulnerable to loss due to fire, flood, and faded ink and are meaningless to the computers that inform us of what is to come. An estimated 500 000 records of crucial historical weather data are being permanently lost per day.
That’s where we come in!
IEDRO is a non-profit, non-governmental environmental organization that has been avidly working with developing countries to rescue and digitize historical environmental data at risk of being lost. We organize people to locate, sort, and photograph the pages of deteriorating data, providing the necessary equipment and training.
Our volunteers then digitize the data from the images and make them accessible via free and open databases. This allows farmers, architects, government agencies, and others to better plan their future while scientists can research more effective methods to protect people and help save our planet.
Rescued data has many life saving benefits:
- Enables accurate, life-saving forecasts of severe weather
- Prevents famine by helping communities adapt their agriculture to better withstand extreme weather
- Educates local decision-makers on how to build and reinforce buildings, bridges, and other structures to withstand disasters
- Aids in the prediction of water and airborne diseases
- Improves our understanding of the nature and scope of global warming, water availability, and other climate changes
- Contributes to our understanding of human history
Our Goals
IEDRO’s mission is to –
- Locate, image, digitize, and share historic environmental data in places where digital data is least available. Such data will improve the accuracy of regional and global climate prediction models and have the greatest impact on human lives.
- Make these data freely and openly available in host country and international databases, serving scientists, researchers, educators, farmers, hydrologic engineers, public officials, and local decision-makers.
These rescued data contribute to understanding all kinds of environmental problems facing humanity, and are critical for crafting effective mitigation measures. Without the rescue and access to these data, regions across the globe will continue to experience unnecessary loss of infrastructure, agricultural and forested lands, economic strength, and human life.
Learn more about rescuing data
News
The Importance of Historical Data
While research seems to hunt for the newest data, historical…
Demystifying the Environmental Data Rescue Process
Here, we summarize the main steps of the data rescue…
A New Face to an Original Commitment
As I write this in 2025, IEDRO completed two decades…
Current Projects
We set out to digitize environmental data worldwide. Get a glimpse of our current and future projects or visit the Projects section to learn more.
Rescuing Data in Panama
Looking back over a century
Hourly rainfall data helps predict landslides and protects the operation of the Panama Canal
Understanding Water Supplies in Uzbekistan
Working with engineers
98% of Uzbekistan’s electricity comes from water power. We are helping their water management planners understand their precious resource with digitized water data.
Project Weather Wizard
developing a digitization tool
This online tool enables supporters anywhere on the internet to view images of historic environmental data forms and enter the information in digital form. Weather Wizards can adjust to different form layouts, and manages the quality assurance process, ensuring that what is shared is accurate and portable.
dedicated to help rescue data
Our Partners
