Community and Impact Based Early Warning System for Flood Risk Preparedness: The Experience of the Sirba River in Niger

Vieri Tarchiani,Leandro Rocchi,Gaptia Lawan Katiellou,Mohamed Housseini Ibrahim,Giovanni Massazza,Tiziana De Filippis,Valentina Marchi,Maurizio Rosso,Maurizio Tiepolo,Alessandro Pezzoli,Elena Rapisardi,Paolo Tamagnone

doi:10.3390/su12051802

Abstract

Floods have recently become a major hazard in West Africa (WA) in terms of both their magnitude and frequency. They affect livelihoods, infrastructure and production systems, hence impacting on Sustainable Development (SD). Early Warning Systems (EWS) for floods that properly address all four EWS components, while also being community and impact-based, do not yet exist in WA. Existing systems address only the main rivers, are conceived in a top-down manner and are hazard-centered. This study on the Sirba river in Niger aims to demonstrate that an operational community and impact-based EWS for floods can be set up by leveraging the existing tools, local stakeholders and knowledge. The main finding of the study is that bridging the gap between top-down and bottom-up approaches is possible by directly connecting the available technical capabilities with the local level through a participatory approach. This allows the beneficiaries to define the rules that will develop the whole system, strengthening their ability to understand the information and take action. Moreover, the integration of hydrological forecasts and observations with the community monitoring and preparedness system provides a lead time suitable for operational decision-making at national and local levels. The study points out the need for the commitment of governments to the transboundary sharing of flood information for EWS and SD.

Highlights

As clearly stated by Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General, on 1st September 2015: “The Sendai framework has important implications
The objective of our research was to demonstrate that it is possible to set up a comprehensive Community and Impact Based Early Warning Systems (EWS) (CIBEWS), responding to the key points and indicators described in the literature, by enhancing existing tools, experience and knowledge in a remote rural area of a poor developing country, such as Niger
The present study demonstrates, that “Engaging local communities and authorities in the EWS design can improve the effectiveness of the whole early warning process and results in a higher response to an alert warning”

Summary

Introduction

As clearly stated by Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General, on 1st September 2015: “The Sendai framework has important implications It shifts the emphasis from disaster management to disaster risk management.”. The framework identified four priorities, the fourth of which embeds the concept of Climate Services (CS) as a powerful tool for more effective disaster preparedness and the ‘build back better’ principle. In this respect, the European research and innovation roadmap for Climate Services expands the contribution of CS, “hydrometeorological services”, to the Sendai framework and EWS, a building block of preparedness [2]

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