{"id":206241,"date":"2021-10-25T21:49:25","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T19:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/new-tools-to-map-flood-risk-will-help-bring-disaster-planning-up-to-date\/"},"modified":"2021-10-25T21:49:25","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T19:49:25","slug":"new-tools-to-map-flood-risk-will-help-bring-disaster-planning-up-to-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/new-tools-to-map-flood-risk-will-help-bring-disaster-planning-up-to-date\/","title":{"rendered":"New tools to map flood risk will help bring disaster planning up to date"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

About 90%<\/a> of natural disasters are water-related \u2013 most notably cyclones, floods and droughts.<\/p>\n

Since 2000, over 5,300<\/a> water-related disasters have been reported across the world, with over 325,000 fatalities and economic losses exceeding<\/a> US$1.7 trillion. Floods alone account for approximately 54% of all water-related disasters. <\/p>\n

In 2020, floods in South Asia affected<\/a> more than 17.5 million people and caused more than 1,000 deaths. The economic losses are still being calculated and are expected to be in billions of US dollars. A similar trend is observed in East Africa, where nearly<\/a> 6 million people were affected in 2020, with 1.5 million of them forced from their homes.<\/p>\n

Forecasts are key to mitigating the worst effects of floods. However, a global survey of Flood Early Warning Systems, conducted by<\/a> the UN University\u2019s Canadian-based Institute for Water Environment Health, revealed that the majority of flood forecasting centres in flood-prone countries lack critical resources to carry out their functions. <\/p>\n

The centres lack the ability to improve the spatial coverage and resolution of early warning systems. <\/p>\n

They also can\u2019t generate historical inundation and flood risk maps. An inundation map points out the specific area flooded by a particular flood event. <\/p>\n

Inundation maps are critical for building flood risk maps. They are created either by using hydrodynamic or empirical models. The hydrodynamic models are data-intensive as they need people to be on the ground, gathering data from river and stream gauges. Empirical models depend on remotely sensed data. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Global South lacks<\/a> the infrastructure and data to calibrate and run hydrodynamic models. Today, gauging stations in North America outnumber<\/a> those in the 20 most water-stressed countries by more than 10 to 1. <\/p>\n

Developing inundations maps at the national level using conventional techniques is a costly exercise. In Canada, for example, it is expected<\/a> to take a decade and US$350 million to update national inundation maps. <\/p>\n

Existing inundation and flood risk maps in most developing countries are<\/a> out-of-date. They also don\u2019t consider rapid urban development or the impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n

Designing flood-risk maps<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m part of the UN University\u2019s Canadian-based Institute for Water Environment Health team closing this knowledge gap. We\u2019ve designed new tools, namely: a Flood Mapping Tool<\/a>, which has just been released, and a Flood Risk Prediction tool, which we\u2019ll launch next year. <\/p>\n

Our new tools will help to create inundation and flood risk maps and bypass the high-cost issue by using big Earth data, artificial intelligence models, open data, and cloud computing. <\/p>\n

They will provide critical input to flood mitigation and emergency response, land use planning and investment in resilient infrastructure, insurance schemes, and overall public awareness of flood risks.<\/p>\n

Other, similar, online tools include a platform launched by the International Water Management Institute<\/a> that maps significant floods in South Asia from 1980 to 2011. And the European Commission Joint Research Centre launched an online tool<\/a> in 2016 which provides free access to global surface water indices. <\/p>\n

Our flood mapping tool builds upon these initiatives and improves the spatial and temporal resolution of the inundation maps. We also focus on the Global South as a whole, where the data and information gaps are prominent and annual losses due to floods are high.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s possible<\/h2>\n

There are three actions that governments can take to lessen the damage of future floods:<\/p>\n