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

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

doi:10.3390/su12051802

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

^1,*

²,

Mohamed Housseini Ibrahim

⁴,

Gaptia Lawan Katiellou

⁵,

¹ and

Institute of BioEconomy–National Research Council (IBE-CNR), 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy

Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST), Politecnico and University of Turin, 10125 Turin, Italy

Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering (DIATI), Politecnico of Turin, 10129 Turin, Italy

⁴

Hydrology Directorate (DH), Ministry of Hydraulics and Sanitation, Niamey BP 257, Niger

⁵

National Directorate of Meteorology (DMN), Ministry of Transports, Niamey BP 218, Niger

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sustainability 2020, 12(5), 1802; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12051802

Received: 7 February 2020 / Revised: 24 February 2020 / Accepted: 26 February 2020 / Published: 28 February 2020

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk-Informed Sustainable Development in the Rural Tropics)

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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. View Full-Text

Keywords: early warning; flood risk; hydrology; local communities; Niger river basin; rural development; Sahel

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Supplementary Materials

Supplementary File 1:
ZIP-Document (ZIP, 123259 KiB)
Externally hosted supplementary file 1
Doi: 10.5281/zenodo.3653934
Link: https://zenodo.org/record/3653934/files/ANADIA2_R10%20Atalante%20Cartografico%20SLAPIS.pdf?download=1
Description: Cartographic Atlas of flood-prone areas over the 108 km of the Nigerien reach of the Sirba River. Maps are compiled at large (1: 100’000) and detailed (1: 20’000) scales. The most exposed riverine villages of Tallé, Garbey Kourou, Larba Birno, Larba Toulombo, Guidare, Toure, Boulkagou and Bossey Bangou are also represented at greater detail (1: 5’000).

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Tarchiani, V.; Massazza, G.; Rosso, M.; Tiepolo, M.; Pezzoli, A.; Housseini Ibrahim, M.; Katiellou, G.L.; Tamagnone, P.; De Filippis, T.; Rocchi, L.; Marchi, V.; Rapisardi, E. Community and Impact Based Early Warning System for Flood Risk Preparedness: The Experience of the Sirba River in Niger. Sustainability 2020, 12, 1802. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12051802

AMA Style

Tarchiani V, Massazza G, Rosso M, Tiepolo M, Pezzoli A, Housseini Ibrahim M, Katiellou GL, Tamagnone P, De Filippis T, Rocchi L, Marchi V, Rapisardi E. Community and Impact Based Early Warning System for Flood Risk Preparedness: The Experience of the Sirba River in Niger. Sustainability. 2020; 12(5):1802. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12051802

Chicago/Turabian Style

Tarchiani, Vieri, Giovanni Massazza, Maurizio Rosso, Maurizio Tiepolo, Alessandro Pezzoli, Mohamed Housseini Ibrahim, Gaptia L. Katiellou, Paolo Tamagnone, Tiziana De Filippis, Leandro Rocchi, Valentina Marchi, and Elena Rapisardi. 2020. "Community and Impact Based Early Warning System for Flood Risk Preparedness: The Experience of the Sirba River in Niger" Sustainability 12, no. 5: 1802. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12051802

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