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Crisis, by its very nature, requires decisive intervention. However, important questions can be obscured by the very immediacy of the crisis condition. What is the nature of the crisis? How it is defined (and by whom)? And, subsequently, what forms of knowledge are deemed legitimate and authoritative for informing interventions? As we see in the current pandemic, there is a desire for immediate answers and solutions during periods of uncertainty. Policymakers and publics grasp for techno-scientific solutions, as though the technical nature of the crisis is self-evident. What is often obscured by this impulse is the contingent, conjunctural and, ultimately, social nature of these crises. The danger here is that by focusing on immediate technical goals, unanticipated secondary effects are produced. These either exacerbate the existing crisis or else produce subsequent crises. Equally, these technical goals can conceal the varied, and often unjust, distribution of risk exposure and resources and capacities for mitigation present within and between societies. These socio-political factors all have important functions in determining the effectiveness of interventions. As with climate change, the unfolding response to the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the importance of broadening the knowledge base beyond technical considerations. Only by including social scientific knowledge is it possible to understand the social nature of the crises we face. Only then is it possible to develop effective, just and legitimate responses. | PLURALISING KNOWLEDGE IN UNCERTAIN TIMESThe current global COVID-19 pandemic brings into sharp focus the problems of risk, uncertainty, knowledge and cultural values in times of crisis. Those of us studying climate change are well familiar with these problems. The challenge here is not only how to govern a scientifically, technically or medically defined risk. It is to ask what is obscured by defining that risk in such technical terms. It is also to understand how different governing strategies are interpreted and acted upon by other actors, individuals and organizations. Crises are inherently unstable periods, but periods in which decisive action is required. In the rush to ameliorate the symptoms, the contingent, conjunctural, and social nature of the crises are easily obscured. If so, then there is a substantial danger that short-term measures beget even greater longer-term problems. If potential secondary effects are not fully considered and anticipated, there is a risk that reactive-as well as preventive-measures will result in severe unintended consequences. Only by broadening the knowledge base beyond the technical in a transparent and plural manner can the social nature of the crisis be grasped.Only then can the nature of the normative choices be revealed. The questions to be asked, therefore, are "a crisis of what?" and "a crisis for whom?" Social scientific knowledge is crucial for understanding and mitigating crises. Social sciences can reveal secondary social and psychological effects of ...

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DISCLAIMERThin report was prepared as #n account or work xponxorcdby an agency of the Unilod Slatm Government Neither the (Jnitcd Slates Govcrnmenl nor any agerv'y thereof, nor uny of their employees, makes wry wurrrmty, express or implied, or u.wumc.sany legal liability or reqron-i. bility for the accuracy, cornpletenexx,or uxcfulncnsof any information, nppnrotua, product, or pruccxndisclomf, or rcprcxants that its usc would not infringe privately owned rights, Reference herein 10 any qmciflc commercial prmfuct, proccxs,or xarvicc by trade nnmc, trudcmark, mnnufrrcturer, or otherwise docn not ncccnmrily um!litutc or imply iln rmdmxcment, rccommondation, or favoring by the United SIaIes oovernmcnt or mry agency thereof. ABSTRACTInterpreting remotely-sensed data typically requires expensive, specialized computing machinery capable of storing and manipulating large amounts of data quickly. In this paper, we preeent a method for accurately analyzing and categorizing remotely -seneed data on much smaller, less expensive platforms. Data size is reduced in such a way as to retain the integrity of the original data, where the format of the resultant data aet lends itself well to providing an efficient, interactive method of data classification.