Climate forecasts in disaster management: Red Cross flood operations in West Africa, 2008

Braman, Lisette M.; Aalst, Maarten van; Mason, Simon J.; Suarez, Pablo; Ait-Chellouche, Youcef; Tall, Arame

doi:10.1111/j.1467-7717.2012.01297.x

Cited by 79 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…For storm floods, most studies focused on flood disasters and forecast [13,14], flood risk and efficiency [15,16], and floodwater utilization [17,18], which has been extended such that rain-flood can be one of the main recharge sources for groundwater in some regions [19,20]. Despite the disaster of floods, under positive circumstances, flood water can be used to constitute a considerable amount of a region's water resources [21], especially in a groundwater system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Shallow Groundwater Recharge from Extreme Rainfalls in the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China

Liu

Jiang

Zhang

et al. 2016

Water

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Groundwater recharge from rainstorms can be vital for regional water resources. With the expansion of the need for more water in some specific regions under global climate change, groundwater is being pumped at a far greater rate than it can be naturally replenished. Considering that excess rainstorms could be utilized for groundwater recharge to lessen the declining tendency of regional groundwater level in the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China, we analyzed groundwater changes in the quantity of a regional shallow aquifer in the region following extreme rainfall in 2013. The results show that shallow groundwater table in the north and central Sanjiang Plain increased following the 2013 extreme rainfall. Most of the annual maximal change of groundwater depth (MCGD) was in the range of 1 m to 3 m, occupying 72.1% of the study area. The average MCGD was 1.73 m in 2013, about 0.4 m higher than the mean value during the last five years (1.33 m). Spatially, the overall average groundwater depth showed an increasing trend from the southeast to the midwest and northeast. We estimated a total recharge of approximately 41.14 × 10 8 m 3 from the 2013 extreme rainfall across the north and central Sanjiang Plain. This large quantity of recharge demonstrates the important role that large rainstorms can play in regional shallow groundwater resources.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Shallow Groundwater Recharge from Extreme Rainfalls in the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China

Liu

Jiang

Zhang

et al. 2016

Water

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“…A seasonal forecast was used to successfully prepare for floods in West Africa by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) (Tall et al, 2012;Braman et al, 2013). With regard to floods, seasonal forecasts are used for signaling a likelihood of increased precipitation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of antecedent conditions on flood risk in sub-Saharan Africa

Bischiniotis

Hurk

Jongman

et al. 2018

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Most flood early warning systems have predominantly focused on forecasting floods with lead times of hours or days. However, physical processes during longer timescales can also contribute to flood generation. In this study, we follow a pragmatic approach to analyse the hydrometeorological pre-conditions of 501 historical damaging floods from 1980 to 2010 in sub-Saharan Africa. These are separated into (a) weather timescale (0-6 days) and (b) seasonal timescale conditions (up to 6 months) before the event. The 7-day precipitation preceding a flood event (PRE7) and the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) are analysed for the two timescale domains, respectively. Results indicate that high PRE7 does not always generate floods by itself. Seasonal SPEIs, which are not directly correlated with PRE7, exhibit positive (wet) values prior to most flood events across different averaging times, indicating a relationship with flooding. This paper provides evidence that bringing together weather and seasonal conditions can lead to improved flood risk preparedness.

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“…Lack of proper records on historical flood events, coupled with logistical and financial challenges have often resulted in a poor preparedness and response to flooding events. Consequently, fatalities have often been high [4,6].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Flood Hazard Zones at the Sub-District Level with the Rational Model Integrated with GIS and Remote Sensing Approaches

Asare-Kyei

Forkuor

Venus

2015

Water

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Robust risk assessment requires accurate flood intensity area mapping to allow for the identification of populations and elements at risk. However, available flood maps in West Africa lack spatial variability while global datasets have resolutions too coarse to be relevant for local scale risk assessment. Consequently, local disaster managers are forced to use traditional methods such as watermarks on buildings and media reports to identify flood hazard areas. In this study, remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques were combined with hydrological and statistical models to delineate the spatial limits of flood hazard zones in selected communities in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Benin. The approach involves estimating peak runoff concentrations at different elevations and then applying statistical methods to develop a Flood Hazard Index (FHI). Results show that about half of the study areas fall into high intensity flood zones. Empirical validation using statistical confusion matrix and the principles of Participatory GIS show that flood hazard areas could be mapped at an accuracy ranging from 77% to 81%. This was supported with local expert knowledge which accurately classified 79% of communities deemed to be highly OPEN ACCESSWater 2015, 7 3532 susceptible to flood hazard. The results will assist disaster managers to reduce the risk to flood disasters at the community level where risk outcomes are first materialized.

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Climate forecasts in disaster management: Red Cross flood operations in West Africa, 2008

Cited by 79 publications

References 13 publications

Assessment of Shallow Groundwater Recharge from Extreme Rainfalls in the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China

Assessment of Shallow Groundwater Recharge from Extreme Rainfalls in the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China

The influence of antecedent conditions on flood risk in sub-Saharan Africa

Modeling Flood Hazard Zones at the Sub-District Level with the Rational Model Integrated with GIS and Remote Sensing Approaches

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