The SAIO – Fostering Community Resilience in Southern Africa by Strengthening Urban Preparedness Systems project, funded by DG-ECHO and led by WFP, aims to enhance the resilience of urban communities in the Southern African region, which is highly exposed to hydrometeorological risks such as cyclones and floods.
The main goal of the initiative is to better understand the specific vulnerabilities of urban communities and provide tools to governments and local institutions to respond more effectively to shocks and disasters affecting these areas. Through a multisectoral and multidisciplinary approach applied in four vulnerable urban hotspots in Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, the project seeks to strengthen preparedness capacities and reduce the number of people affected by disasters in urban areas.
CIMA Research Foundation’s contribution
The primary objective is to develop an operational urban flood forecasting system, called OPUS (Operational Urban-flooding System), to support timely preparedness actions based on accurate forecasts. The project focuses on four vulnerable urban hotspots in Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. CIMA Research Foundation, commissioned by WFP, contributes its technical expertise to the development of this operational urban flood forecasting system, OPUS, to support timely preparedness actions based on accurate forecasts. This technical component, carried out by CIMA Research Foundation, is based on four main actions:
- collecting and analyzing high-resolution information through the use of drones;
- creating flood scenarios for different precipitation events, varying in intensity and duration
- defining critical danger thresholds to generate alerts based on the expected impact, considering both hazard factors (such as return frequency) and exposure/vulnerability conditions;
- Implementing an operational chain that links flood scenarios with daily weather forecasts to provide updates on potential flood impacts in the coming days.
CIMA Research Foundation also contributes to defining alert thresholds for urban floods and provides technical-scientific training and support to local partners, including National Disaster Management Agencies (NDMAs) and National Meteorological Services (NHMSs), to ensure the sustainability and replicability of the developed system.
