Analysis of the world’s ports from space has laid the groundwork for an ambitious project to track the impact of extreme weather on global trade.
PortWatch, an online platform backed by the International Monetary Fund, is due to launch this year to chart how damage to port facilities disrupts trade and supply chains.
The initiative builds on work by researchers at Oxford University who used satellite imagery and climate data to assess the defences of the world’s most busy 1,340 ports from extreme weather events.
