Beira City Research Articles

Assessing the resilience of HIV healthcare services provided to adolescents and young adults after the COVID-19 pandemic in the city of Beira (Mozambique): an interrupted time series analysis

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has put the provision of health services globally at risk. In Sub-Saharan Africa, it had a major impact on HIV services. However, there is a lack of data on the post-pandemic period. This study aims to evaluate the resumption of HIV services and retention in care for adolescents and young people in the period following the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA retrospective cohort study was conducted using interrupted time series analysis. Three periods were considered: pre-pandemic (form June 2019 to March 2020), pandemic (form April 2020 to March 2022) post-pandemic (from April 2022 to March 2023). Six outcome measures were considered: number of outpatient visits, HIV tests, HIV positivity ratio, the antiretroviral treatment (ART) non-adherence ratio, recall ratio, and the return ratio for adolescent and young adults on ART.ResultsDuring the study period, 447,515 outpatient visits and 126,096 HIV tests were recorded. After a reduction at the beginning of the pandemic period, both visits and tests increased during the pandemic (p < 0.05) and decreased in the post-pandemic (p < 0.05), recovering the pre-pandemic trends. The HIV positivity ratio slightly decreased from 3.3% to 1.7% during the study period (p < 0.05). The ART non-adherence ratio decreased from 23.4% to 2.4% throughout the study period (p < 0.05), with a drop at the beginning of the post-pandemic period (p < 0.05). The recall ratio increased during the study period (p < 0.05) with a drop at the beginning of the pandemic and post-pandemic periods (p < 0.05). The return ratio decreased at the beginning of the pandemic (p < 0.05) but returned to the pre-pandemic ratio in the post-pandemic period.ConclusionsThe post-pandemic values of the investigated outcomes were comparable to pre-pandemic period, or even improved. Differently from other services, such as the community activities, that have been severely affected by COVID-19 pandemic, the HIV service system has shown resilience following emergency situation.

COASTAL PROTECTION OF THE CITY OF BEIRA IN MOZAMBIQUE: EVALUATION AND MITIGATION PROPOSALS

The present research is the result of a quantitative research that aims to propose sustainable ways of protecting the coastal zone to reduce the negative effects of coastal erosion in the City of Beira, starting from a previous evaluation. For the perception of the research data, the methodology consisted of bibliographical research, documentary research, direct observation and inquiry with employees of the Municipal Council and residents of the neighborhood of Praia Nova, Ponta - Gêa, Palmeiras and Macuti, with a sample of 215 participants . From the statistical analysis, the research found that the natural cause of coastal erosion is rain, global warming and the rise in sea level, while the anthropogenic causes were found to be the destruction of coastal vegetation and dunes; sustainable natural measures include the planting of mangroves and casuarinas, while artificial measures include the construction of breakwaters, walls and spurs. Given the relevance of the study, it is suggested that the municipality make efforts with the government and cooperation partners in order to obtain funding for the construction of a wall from Praia Nova to the area of the Wedding Palace; The city council must make efforts to rehabilitate breakwaters close to water outlets in particular, and train its employees in coastal protection and disaster risk management. It should also develop lectures involving the community, on matters about the causes and consequences of climate change, global warming and erosion.

Accounting for uncertainties in forecasting tropical-cyclone-induced compound flooding

Abstract. Tropical-cyclone impacts can have devastating effects on the population, infrastructure, and natural habitats. However, predicting these impacts is difficult due to the inherent uncertainties in the storm track and intensity. In addition, due to computational constraints, both the relevant ocean physics and the uncertainties in meteorological forcing are only partly accounted for. This paper presents a new method, called the Tropical Cyclone Forecasting Framework (TC-FF), to probabilistically forecast compound flooding induced by tropical cyclones, considering uncertainties in track, forward speed, and wind speed and/or intensity. The open-source method accounts for all major relevant physical drivers, including tide, surge, and rainfall, and considers TC uncertainties through Gaussian error distributions and autoregressive techniques. The tool creates temporally and spatially varying wind fields to force a computationally efficient compound-flood model, allowing for the computation of probabilistic wind and flood hazard maps for any oceanic basin in the world as it does not require detailed information on the distribution of historical errors. A comparison of TC-FF and JTWC operational ensembles, both based on DeMaria et al. (2009), revealed minor differences of &lt;10 %, suggesting that TC-FF can be employed as an alternative, for example, in data-scarce environments. The method was applied to Cyclone Idai in Mozambique. The underlying physical model showed reliable skill in terms of tidal propagation, reproducing the storm surge generation during landfall and flooding near the city of Beira (success index of 0.59). The method was successfully applied to forecasting the impact of Idai with different lead times. The case study analyzed needed at least 200 ensemble members to get reliable water levels and flood results 3 d before landfall (&lt;1 % flood probability error and &lt;20 cm sampling errors). Results showed the sensitivity of forecasting, especially with increasing lead times, highlighting the importance of accounting for cyclone variability in decision-making and risk management.

Determinants of preventive sexual behaviours among first year university students in Beira city, central Mozambique: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundUnderstanding determinants of preventive sexual behaviours is important for intervention efforts to support these behaviours and, thereby, reduce STIs and HIV burden. In general, there is limited insight into determinants of preventive behaviours among university students in Mozambique. Therefore, this study set out to assess both the prevalence and the determinants of condom use and voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) service use in first year university students.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study in May–September 2021, at the Universidade Católica de Moçambique and the Universidade Licungo, in Beira central Mozambique. We collected data on sociodemographic characteristics, heterosexual relationship experiences and personal determinants posited to be associated with condom use and VCT service use. We included 819 participants, who were selected using a clustered and random sampling design. We used Pearson's chi-square test to compare proportion and estimate the crude odd ratio as the effect size measure at 95% confidence interval, and Confidence Interval-Based Estimation of Relevance to determine correlation coefficients of means and the behaviours of interest at 95% confidence interval.ResultsCondoms were used by 96.1% of male participants and 95.0% of female participants. Additionally, 55.1% of male participants and 57.5% of female participants had previously used VCT services. Condom use was associated with discussing sexuality with mother, and self-efficacy for condom use negotiation, and negatively associated with attitudes that condoms reduce pleasure. VCT service use was associated with discussing sexuality with mother, sexual debut, having a sexual partner, and being in what they consider an important heterosexual relationship. Knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy and subjective norms were weakly associated with VCT service use.ConclusionIn first year university students in Mozambique, reported condom use was high but VCT services were only used by about half of the participants. Interventions aiming to increase VCT service use should focus on improving communication between parents and their adolescent or young adult children, providing personalized risk information, demonstrating that VCT service use is pleasant and non-judgmental, improving users’ confidence to schedule a visit, and preparing users for possible positive testing results.

Prevalência da má nutrição em crianças menores de cinco anos na cidade da Beira, Moçambique, 2019

Abstract Objectives: to describe the prevalence of malnutrition (underweight, low height, and overweight) in children aged six to 59 months and its spatial distribution in the city of Beira, Mozambique. Methods: an exploratory cross-sectional study was conducted between October and November 2019, involving 407 children aged six to 59 months. The sample size calculation was based on the prevalence of height-for-age deficit. Anthropometric data were analyzed using Anthro version and the prevalence of malnutrition was presented through thematic maps generated in Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS). Results: the main findings revealed a prevalence of 27.0% for low height/age, 7.9% for underweight/height, and 4.7% for overweight. Conclusions: the spatial distribution highlighted that both urban and peri-urban areas of the city showed similar prevalence rates for the three forms of malnutrition. The prevalence of malnutrition in Beira is high, with deficit height/age being the most significant expression, while overweight is diffusely distributed.

Prevalence of malnutrition in children under five years old in Beira city, Mozambique, 2019

Resumo Objetivos: descrever a prevalência da má nutrição (baixo peso, baixa estatura e excesso de peso) em crianças de seis a 59 meses e sua distribuição espacial na cidade de Beira, Moçambique. Métodos: estudo transversal exploratório, realizado entre outubro e novembro de 2019, incluindo 407 crianças de seis a 59 meses. O cálculo da amostra foi baseado na prevalência do déficit estatura/idade. Os dados antropométricos foram analisados no Anthro e a prevalência de má nutrição apresentada por meio de mapas temáticos no Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS). Resultados: os principais resultados mostram uma prevalência de 27,0% de baixa estatura/idade, 7,9% de baixo peso/estatura e 4,7% de excesso de peso. Conclusões: a distribuição espacial evidenciou que as áreas urbanas e periurbanas da cidade apresentavam prevalências similares das três formas de má nutrição. A prevalência da má nutrição em Beira é alta, embora o déficit estatura/idade seja a sua maior expressão, estando o excesso de peso difusamente distribuído.

Re-forming resource entrepôts: Urban investment, extraction, and Beira’s Grande and Golden Peacock Hotels

Recent literature on investment and African infrastructure have called for examining ‘Global China’s’ urban impacts. This article investigates these in the entrepôt city of Beira, Mozambique, offering an approach to urban investment that centers cities’ rural-urban, and historically entangled connections. Through what I term ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ aspects, I introduce an analytical and conceptual approach to attend to these temporal and spatial dynamics of not only city-making, but capitalist-oriented, extractivist place-making. Analyzing a set of historical and colonial hotels and special economic zones (SEZs), I demonstrate how, rather than being a Chinese model for implementation in various locales, new Mozambican-Chinese projects in Beira articulate with and create new spatial connections that are innately interlinked with European extractive practices and designs. I also de-center the city, demonstrating how urban space is reconfigured through its relationship with its outsides, rather than the other way around. By investigating Beira as a re-forming resource entrepôt, I challenge the above scholarship to take seriously deeper histories of infrastructure investment in Africa, and attend to the inextricable nature of especially city-hinterland regional ties. Ultimately, I examine temporal and spatial entanglements of capitalist extraction, entrepôt construction, and Southern African urbanism, through a historically situated and regional view.

CHARACTERISTICS ON CYCLONE AND STORM SURGE IN BEIRA CITY, MOZAMBIQUE

There were 2 severe cyclones that attached the Eastern African area in 2019. Cyclone IDAI attacked Beira city in central Mozambique, causing torrential rains and strong winds that resulted in more than 600 deaths and damage of 240,000 houses. Cyclone KENITH also attacked the northern part of Mozambique in the same year. There is few academic research regarding cyclones and storm surge in the Eastern Africa even if many cyclones attacked there. This study analyzed the characteristics of tropical cyclones that passed through the city of Beira and performed a series of storm surge simulations to understand impact factors based on its characteristics.

THE SELECTION AND DESIGN OF VEGETATED DUNES AS PREFERRED MAIN COASTAL PROTECTION SYSTEM FOR BEIRA, MOZAMBIQUE

The coastal city of Beira is vulnerable to cyclones, storm surges, sea-level rise and floods from intensive rainfall events because of its low-lying situation. Cyclone Idai in 2019 has proven this again. A significant improvement of the coastal protection scheme is needed to provide sufficient protection for Beira to protect from hazards from sea and climate change for decades to come. The coastal protection infrastructure is to be integrated into the urban and natural environment of Beira, whilst seeking socio-economic, environmental and urban synergy. In this context, we performed an extensive flood and erosion risk assessment, feasibility study and design, environmental and social scoping study and set up an implementation strategy for the selected preferred alternative and priority measures. This included an intensive stakeholder engagement process throughout the project (2020-2022).

Supervised and unsupervised machine learning approaches using Sentinel data for flood mapping and damage assessment in Mozambique

Natural hazards, such as flooding, have been negatively impacting developed and emerging economies alike. The effects of floods are more prominent in countries of the Global South, where large parts of the population and infrastructure are insufficiently protected from natural hazards. From this scope, a lot of effort is required to mitigate these impacts by continuously providing new and more reliable tools to aid in mitigation and preparedness, during or after a flood event. Flood mapping followed by damage assessment plays an important role in all these stages. In this work we investigate a new dataset provided by DrivenData Labs based on Sentinel-1 (S1) imagery (VH, VV imagery and labels) to help map floods in the city of Beira in Mozambique. Exploiting Google Earth Engine (GEE), we deployed supervised and unsupervised machine learning (ML) methods on a dataset comprising imagery from 13 countries worldwide. We first mapped the floods country-by-country including Mozambique. This first part was helpful to understand the sensitivity of each method when applied to data from different regions and with different polarizations. We then trained the supervised model globally (in all 13 countries) and used it to predict floods in Beira. To assess the accuracy of the experiments we used the intersection over the union (IoU) metric, results of which we compared with the benchmark IoU achieved by the winner in the DrivenData competition for flood mapping in 2021. The implementation of unsupervised and supervised ML using VH and VV+VH produced satisfactory results, and showed to be better than using VV imagery; in Cambodia and Bolivia with VH polarization yielded IoUs values ranging from 0.819 to 0.856 which is above the benchmark (0.8094). The predictions in Beira using VH imagery yielded IoU of 0.568, which is a reasonable outcome. The proposed approach is a reliable alternative for flood mapping, especially in Mozambique due to its low cost and time effectiveness as even with unsupervised approaches, relatively high-quality results are yielded in near real-time. Finally, we used Sentinel-2 (S2) imagery for a land cover classification to perform damage assessment in Beira and integrated population data from Beira to enhance the quality the results. The results show that 20% of agricultural area and about 10% of built up area were flooded. Flooded built up area includes highly populated neighborhoods such as Chaimite and Ponta Gea that are located in the center of the city.

The Possibilities of Capturing Rainwater and Reducing the Impact of Floods: A Proposal for the City of Beira, Mozambique

Modern societies face various challenges, including climate change, rapid urbanization, and sometimes inadequate urban planning policies. In recent years, extreme weather events have received increasing attention for their impacts on cities, humans, and ecosystems worldwide, particularly on coastal towns in Mozambique, such as cyclones, floods, water pollution, and water scarcity, demonstrating their vulnerability to climate change. Cities must adapt to cope with the pressure on their water resources, and it is essential to ensure that communities have access to safe, reliable, and affordable water. A viable way to promote this resilience and simultaneously reduce costs in domestic budgets is to use rainwater to meet daily needs where water quality parameters are not required for consumption. According to the results of this study, it is possible to significantly reduce potable water use from the municipal water supply network by harvesting rainwater, up to 40% when the use does not require potable water at all, proactively protecting this vital resource. In addition to these direct benefits, the large-scale deployment of rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems in densely urbanized areas can also provide indirect benefits, such as reducing peak flow volumes in stormwater drainage systems and potentially reducing the frequency of urban floods. These benefits result from the reduction in the volume and duration of water sent to the drainage network, which can help to improve the overall resilience of communities in the face of climate change and other challenges.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights in Mozambique

At a bar outside the major northern port city of Beira in Mozambique, a group of young men gather around to watch a play on HIV. The play tells the story of a man who is in denial of his HIV diagnosis, who refuses to take his pills and now has bad diarrhoea. “This is witchery,” he exclaims to the roaring laughter of the crowd. “A neighbour put a spell on me. I feel fine.” The nurse insists he takes his drugs; that if he does, he can live a normal life. At the end of the play, a peer educator from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders) asks the crowd if they understood the message.

Performance comparison of two deep learning models for flood susceptibility map in Beira area, Mozambique

Floods are potentially devastating natural hazards that can threaten human life and ecosystems. The serious impact caused by floods is the reason for the urgent need to provide an appropriate flood susceptibility map (FSM). Floods can be triggered by various meteorological events, such as storms in coastal areas. On 14 March 2019, Cyclone Idai produced massive and severe flooding inundation in the coastal city of Beira, Mozambique. The extensive flood damage in Beira necessitated providing an accurate FSM and analyzing the factors associated with flooding. This study integrated the data of synthetic aperture radar (SAR), geographic information system (GIS), and two deep learning models, namely, the group method of data handling (GMDH) and convolutional neural network (CNN), to generate a precise FSM. We compared the performance of CNN and GMDH models in generating the FSMs for a case study of the March 2019 flood in the Beira Area, Mozambique. The result showed that the models produced a similar pattern of FSM, where the areas near the river, having a lower slope and lower altitude, have a higher flood risk. The FSM generated by CNN and GMDH models were compared to find a better model for flood risk assessment. The prediction performance of CNN model (AUC = 0.90 and RMSE = 0.022) was better than the result of GMDH model (AUC = 0.87 and RMSE = 0.089). The study should be used to mitigate the flood disaster and reduce flood risk in the future.

Prevalence of hepatitis B virus and immunity status among healthcare workers in Beira City, Mozambique.

BackgroundHepatitis B virus (HBV) infection can be prevented by vaccination. Exposure to blood or body fluids poses a high risk of transmission of HBV in health care workers (HCWs). This study aimed to determine the prevalence of markers of exposure, susceptibility, and protection to HBV infection in HCWs in Beira, Mozambique.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted between June and August 2020 in Beira City, Mozambique, in HCWs based on self-administered questionnaires and blood samples. Plasma samples were tested for HBV surface antigen (HBsAg), antibodies to HBV core antigen (anti-HBc), antibodies to HBsAg (anti-HBs) and HBV viral load (HBV DNA).ResultsMost of the 315 HCWs in the study were nurses (125; 39.7%). Of the HCWs, 5.1% (16; 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 2.9 to 8.1%) were infected by HBV (HBsAg and/or HBV DNA positive). Occult HBV infection (OBI) (HBV DNA positive and HBsAg negative) was found in 0.3% (1; 95% CI: 0.0 to 1.8%) of participants; 27.9% (88; 95% CI: 23.1 to 33.2%) were susceptible (negative for all markers), 6.3% (20; 95% CI: 3.9 to 9.6) were immune due to natural infection (anti-HBs and anti-HBc positive only), while 60% (189; 95% CI: 54.4 to 65.5) were immune due to vaccination (anti-HBs positive only).ConclusionThis study showed a high intermediate prevalence of chronic hepatitis B among healthcare workers in Beira City, Central Mozambique, and one-third of healthcare workers were susceptible to HBV infection. There is a need to implement a national hepatitis B screening and vaccination strategy among healthcare workers in Mozambique.

Implementation of the South African Triage Scale (SATS) in a New Ambulance System in Beira, Mozambique: A Retrospective Observational Study.

In 2019, an urban ambulance system was deployed in the city of Beira, Mozambique to refer patients from peripheral health centres (HCs) to the only hospital of the city (Beira Central Hospital—HCB). Initially, the system worked following a first-in–first-out approach, thus leading to referrals not based on severity condition. With the aim of improving the process, the South African Triage Scale (SATS) has been subsequently introduced in three HCs. In this study, we assessed the impact of SATS implementation on the selection process and the accuracy of triage performed by nurses. We assessed 552 and 1608 referral charts from before and after SATS implementation, respectively, and we retrospectively calculated codes. We compared the expected referred patients’ codes from the two phases, and nurse-assigned codes to the expected ones. The proportion of referred orange and red codes significantly increased (+12.2% and +12.9%) while the proportion of green and yellow codes decreased (−18.7% and −5.8%). The overall rates of accuracy, and under- and overtriage were 34.2%, 36.3%, and 29.5%, respectively. The implementation of SATS modified the pattern of referred patients and increased the number of severe cases receiving advanced medical care at HCB. While nurses’ accuracy improved with the routine use of the protocol, the observed rates of incorrect triage suggest that further research is needed to identify factors affecting SATS application in this setting.

Italian Field Hospital Experience in Mozambique: Report of Ordinary Activities in an Extraordinary Context.

On March 15, 2019, Cyclone Idai made landfall near the port city of Beira in central Mozambique causing significant casualties and serious damage to infrastructure. The Emergency Medical Team Type 2 - Italy Regione Piemonte (EMT2-ITA) was deployed approximately two weeks after the disaster to support the country in need, providing essential medical and surgical care.The EMT2-ITA staff was composed of 77 team members including two rotations and integrating local staff. A total of 1,121 patients (1,183 triage admissions) were treated during the 27 days of field hospital activity; among all the admissions, only few cases (17; 1%) were directly or indirectly attributed to the disaster event. Only three cases of cholera were confirmed and transferred to one of the treatment centers set up in Beira. The EMT2-ITA performed a total of 62 surgical operations (orthopedic, gynecological, general, and plastic surgery), of which more than one-half were elective procedures.The objective of this manuscript is to report the mission of the EMT2-ITA in Mozambique, raising interesting points of discussion regarding the impact of timing on the mission outcomes, the operational and clinical activities in the field hospital, and the great importance to integrate local staff into the team.

Evaluation of a Sexual Transmitted Infection Prevention Program Among University Students in Beira City Central Mozambique: A Study Protocol.

Background: Unhealthy sexual behaviors, such as unprotected sexual intercourse and lack of using screening services increase cyclical transmission of sexually transmitted infections including Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), especially among young adults. Hence health promotion programs can contribute to reduce the consequences, by changing (determinants of) these behaviors. Such interventions need to embrace a comprehensive approach and apply theory-and evidence-based methods. This article describes the protocol for a process and effect evaluation study of a sexually transmitted infection prevention program among university students in Beira city, central Mozambique.Methods: The on-going program at Universidade Católica de Moçambique is described following the six steps of Intervention Mapping (IM), with a focus on the evaluation plan (i.e., the final step in IM). The details regarding previous steps in the protocol are briefly described as well, as they lay the foundation for the final step. The overall study will apply a hybrid type 1 approach by assessing the effectiveness of the intervention while gettering implementation. The process evaluation will apply qualitative and quantitative methods to gain insight in the context, reach, dose delivered, dose received and recruitment. Interviews with closed and open-ended questions will be conducted with program implementers and users. A quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design is used to evaluate the effectiveness. A cohort of university students will be followed for 6 months. Self-administrated questionnaires will be used to collect data every 3 months.Discussion: A combination of process and effect evaluation is proposed. This is a useful and fruitful procedure, since concurrent process evaluation can allow researchers to better interpret findings from the effect evaluation and understand how the intervention might replicate in similar contexts. We decided to follow the IM approach since, it is a theory-and evidence-based, systematic and detailed guide regarding what to do at every steps. A quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design was chosen to fit the context of the study and generate outcomes with high external validity.Study Registration: 004/CIBS/2020.

PT EMT - Portuguese Emergency Medical Team Type 1 Relief Mission in Mozambique.

The tropical cyclone Idai hit Mozambique in the city of Beira on March 15, 2019. During the following days, the Portuguese Emergency Medical Team (PT EMT) and its infrastructure deployed to Mozambique with the mission of helping local people and collaborating with the authorities. Data analyzed were collected in the period of the deployment, from April 1-April 30, 2019. All patients admitted to PT EMT were registered through the Clinical Record of PT EMT. In total, 1,662 patients were admitted to PT EMT during the 30-day mission. The five most prevalent diagnoses were: 61.49% classified with "code 29" (which corresponds to "other unspecified diagnoses"), 9.15% of cases of skin disease, 8.90% of minor injuries, 6.74% of acute respiratory infection, and 3.19% of obstetric/genecology complications. An important challenge identified was the need for a robust and effective network for transporting patients, allowing transfers between EMTs, enabling a true network response in the provision of care to disaster victims. The benefit of the deployment of PT EMT in Mozambique after Cyclone Idai was in line with the EMT initiative standards, allowing a direct delivery of care to the affected Mozambican population and support to the local health authorities.

Spatial Distribution of Displaced Population Estimated Using Mobile Phone Data to Support Disaster Response Activities

Under normal circumstances, people’s homes and work locations are given by their addresses, and this information is used to create a disaster management plan in which there are instructions to individuals on how to evacuate. However, when a disaster strikes, some shelters are destroyed, or in some cases, distance from affected areas to the closest shelter is not reasonable, or people have no possibility to act rationally as a natural response to physical danger, and hence, the evacuation plan is not followed. In each of these situations, people tend to find alternative places to stay, and the evacuees in shelters do not represent the total number of the displaced population. Knowing the spatial distribution of total displaced people (including people in shelters and other places) is very important for the success of the response activities which, among other measures, aims to provide for the basic humanitarian needs of affected people. Traditional methods of people displacement estimation are based on population surveys in the shelters. However, conducting a survey is infeasible to perform at scale and provides low coverage, i.e., can only cover the numbers for the population that are at the shelters, and the information cannot be delivered in a timely fashion. Therefore, in this research, anonymized mobile Call Detail Records (CDRs) are proposed as a source of information to infer the spatial distribution of the displaced population by analyzing the variation of home cell-tower for each anonymized mobile phone subscriber before and after a disaster. The effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated using remote-sensing-based building damage assessment data and Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) from an individual’s questionnaire survey conducted after a severe cyclone in Beira city, central Mozambique, in March 2019. The results show an encouraging correlation coefficient (over 70%) between the number of arrivals in each neighborhood estimated using CDRs and from DTM. In addition to this, CDRs derive spatial distribution of displaced populations with high coverage of people, i.e., including not only people in the shelter but everyone who used a mobile phone before and after the disaster. Moreover, results suggest that if CDRs data are available right after a disaster, population displacement can be estimated, and this information can be used for response activities and hence contribute to reducing waterborne diseases (e.g., diarrheal disease) and diseases associated with crowding (e.g., acute respiratory infections) in shelters and host communities.

Proposal for a Methodology for Sustainable Rehabilitation Strategies of the Existing Building Stock—The Ponte Gêa Neighborhood

Having in mind the objectives of the United Nations Development Agenda 2030, which refers to the sustainable principles of a circular economy, it is urgent to improve the performance of the built environment. The existing buildings must be preserved and improved in order to reduce their environmental impact, in line with the need to revert climate change and reduce the occurrence of natural disasters. This work had as its main goal to identify and define a methodology for promoting the rehabilitation of buildings in the Ponte Gêa neighborhood, in the city of Beira, Mozambique, with an emphasis on energy efficiency, water efficiency, and construction and demolition waste management. The proposed methodology aims to create a decision support method for creating strategic measures to be implemented by considering the three specific domains—energy, water, and waste. This model allows for analyzing the expected improvement according to the action to be performed, exploring both individual and community solutions. It encompasses systems of standard supply that can reveal greater efficiency and profitability. Thus, the in-depth knowledge of the characteristics of urban space and buildings allows for establishing guidelines for the renovation process of the neighborhood.