A new product that monitors key datasets and generates automated emails when significant, negative changes are detected
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Sign up below to receive HDX Signals emails. To receive the content you are interested in, please make sure you have selected AT LEAST ONE dataset and region or priority humanitarian location from the options below. All locations in a region include all locations covered by the datasets, not just priority humanitarian locations listed below.
Data Coverage
Datasets monitored by HDX Signals at the moment are as follows:
Agricultural hotspots
European Commission’s Joint Research Centre Anomaly Hot Spots of Agricultural Production
Learn moreResources
For more information about the datasets monitored by HDX Signals as well as information for developers see the following:
For more information, please contact us at hdx-signals@un.org.
FAQs
Use HDX Signals to stay up-to-date on critical changes in your datasets and regions of interest. Receive signals directly in your inbox, where automated data visualizations and AI summarizations can help you understand the current situation. Follow links to source reports, datasets, reports, and other resources to further investigate the situation. Access every piece of information in the email, from the plots to the source links to the text summaries, directly in the HDX dataset. Use the HDX API to programmatically integrate HDX Signals into your own analysis and insights platforms. Learn more in these slides.
HDX has grown significantly since 2014, attracting a growing number of users and wealth of data. However, deriving useful insights from the data requires time consuming, technical, and often duplicative data cleaning and analysis processes. For key HDX datasets, HDX Signals automates this process, monitoring for significant changes in the data and generating insights when significant deteriorations are detected. Signals are disseminated automatically via email, increasing accessibility to all users regardless of accessibility. All email content, from AI generated summaries to automatic plots and maps, are made public in the HDX dataset and programmatically through the HDX API, ensuring signals can be integrated into the workflows of any analyst or organization.
The system has been designed so that every piece of information in a signal is stored and publicized in the dataset. All text and numeric values used in the signals are stored directly in the dataset. Plots, maps, and other visuals are available directly as links, allowing easy embedding or usage in other platforms. The email campaigns themselves are similarly available as links, allowing you to easily share signals with anyone.
Signals are generated when concerning changes are detected in monitored datasets and locations that are higher than in the recent past, such as spikes in internal displacement or a projected rise in food insecurity. You can find the full details in the methodology.
Over 200 locations (typically countries and territories) are in the datasets monitored by HDX Signals. For full coverage details of specific datasets, refer to the methodology or download the locations metadata on HDX.
Priority humanitarian locations are those locations with Humanitarian Response Plans. Read more about these locations on Humanitarian Action and programmatically access the list in the locations metadata on HDX.
You can see an example email here. All HDX Signals emails and content are available in the HDX dataset, where you can find the most recent signals.
No, dataset update notifications cover a wider range of datasets and changes, such as when the structure of a dataset changes or new observations are added. Signals are only generated when analysis on monitored, updated datasets shows concerning changes in locations.
You will only receive emails for the datasets and geographical regions that you subscribe to, so frequency of emailing will vary. Dataset timings are set so that users should not expect more than one email a week at most. Based on historical data, for each dataset we expect to generate signals in no more than thirty to forty locations each year. We have also set a limit to only signal for a location-dataset once per 6 months, unless the situation has significantly changed. For more detailed information on how signals are generated for the datasets you are interested in, please refer to our methodology.
You can find a “Manage your preferences” link at the bottom of every HDX Signals email. Alternatively, if you submit your e-mail into the registration form, a link will be generated for you to edit your subscription preferences.
OpenAI’s GPT-4o large language model is used to generate summary content for signals, to provide additional context to the quantitative data and visualizations generated by the system. Publicly available text data from primary datasets and linked secondary sources is aggregated and passed to GPT-4o to produce key headlines and situation summaries for each signal.
Historical signals are generated for all indicators, to give a sense of when we would have signaled in previous years and better contextualize recent signals.
You can find a simple feedback poll at the end of every HDX Signals email. Alternatively, send your feedback directly to hdx-signals@un.org.
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