{"id":1698,"date":"2015-05-30T10:00:42","date_gmt":"2015-05-30T09:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/engagement-and-impact\/?p=1698"},"modified":"2025-01-13T15:51:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T15:51:58","slug":"targeting-flood-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/engagement-and-impact\/targeting-flood-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"Targeting flood aid"},"content":{"rendered":"

How climate modelling predicts where to send humanitarian aid<\/h2>\n

Through long held working partnerships with a range of agencies, Dr Emerton and Dr Ficchi provided real-time emergency flood hazard reports to the UK\u2019s Department for International Development (DFID, now the FCDO) and to aid agencies operating in Mozambique during Cyclones Idai and Kenneth. These were designed to help the humanitarian response to make informed decisions on high-risk areas, provide emergency shelters and move those imminently in danger.<\/p>\n

Targeting flood aid<\/h3>\n

Cyclones Idai and Kenneth struck Mozambique in March and April 2019, claiming more than 1,000 lives and leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless. DFID made an urgent request to the University to provide rapid assessments of upcoming flood risk after Cyclone Idai\u2019s landfall, and again ahead of Cyclone Kenneth. Our researchers interpreted data from GloFAS (the Copernicus Emergency Management Service\u00a0Global Flood Awareness System<\/a>), a state-of-the-art flood forecasting system, to provide up-to-the-minute emergency briefings. The reports made a critical contribution to help governments and NGOs put humanitarian aid in the places where it was needed most, and inform action plans (e.g. pre-positioning aid workers, setting up shelters, moving people to safer areas).<\/p>\n

Combined Science<\/h4>\n

Our researchers in the Water@Reading hydrology research group have been working in partnership with ECMWF and the European Commission for several years to contribute to GloFAS development, analysing forecasts in order to improve the system. Under\u00a0SHEAR<\/a>\u00a0(Science for Humanitarian Emergencies & Resilience), an interdisciplinary research programme launched in 2016 and funded by DFID alongside the Natural Environment Research Council, our researchers are investigating how such forecasts can be used to take early humanitarian action. Two ongoing SHEAR projects informed the emergency reports.<\/p>\n

FATHUM (Forecasts for Anticipatory Humanitarian Action), led by Dr Liz Stephens (part of the Water@Reading group), works with local stakeholders to identify early warnings that can be used to kick-start humanitarian activities before a disaster strikes, through a mechanism known as\u00a0Forecast-based Financing<\/a>. FATHUM research provides critical evidence and expertise to scale-up Forecast-based Financing beyond local pilot projects, to national and international levels. FATHUM contributed analysis to help disaster managers in Mozambique, Uganda (in 2016 and 2017<\/a>) and elsewhere (e.g.\u00a0Bangladesh in 2017)<\/a>\u00a0take action before flooding began.<\/p>\n

In addition, researchers on the\u00a0PICSEA<\/a>\u00a0(Predicting Impacts of Cyclones in South East Africa) project, led by Dr Nicholas Klingaman at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (part of the University), are investigating the accuracy of cyclone forecasts in the region, collaborating with FATHUM, alongside national forecasting agencies in south-east Africa, to provide analysis of meteorological forecasts of cyclone-related hazards. This combined meteorological and hydrological expertise was of vital importance in producing the DFID reports.<\/p>\n

Fast facts<\/h3>\n