H197-0019
Title: Capacity Building to Enhance Resilience to Hydrodynamic Disasters in Emerging Regions

Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Poster
Teshome Lemma Yami1, Jonathan J Gourley2, Shang Gao3, Mengye Chen4, Zhi Li1, Humberto J Vergara5, Race A Clark1, Laura G Labriola6, Daniel Mandl7, Yang Hong8 and Shang Gao, (1)University of Oklahoma Norman Campus, Norman, OK, United States, (2)National Severe Storms Lab, Oklahoma City, OK, United States, (3)University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma, United States, (4)The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, United States, (5)Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, United States, (6)University of Oklahoma Norman Campus, Civil Engineering and Environmental Science, Norman, OK, United States, (7)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (8)School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, United States
Abstract:
Abstract

Water and water-related disasters, e.g. flooding, landslide and droughts, are affecting the world and it is important for decision makers and experts to build the capacity of forecasting hydrodynamic disasters and safeguarding people’s life and property. In emerging regions on regional streamflow monitoring and forecasting to use Earth observation and geospatial information technologies is of paramount importance. The capacity building supports the ongoing services by improving the holistic assessments of agriculture and water, focusing on seasonal and annual forecasts; and drought characterizations and forecasts. This study focuses on building capacity of decision makers and analysts with an aim to create and support a robust framework for decision makers in integrated water resource management. Capacity building training workshops have been conducted using Coupled Routing and Excess Storage (CREST) and Ensemble Framework for Flash Flood Forecasting (EF5) distributed hydrological modeling jointly developed by University of Oklahoma (OU) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), involving Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), ICPAC and Kenyan Meteorological department (KMD). The OU_Applied Science Team (AST) in collaboration with RCMRD provided an EF5 hydrologic model website to KMD to visualize and forecast streamflow. Further, an advanced EF5 training was conducted in East Africa and a system to collect citizen reports to gather observations of flooding was developed. This effort will improve awareness of access to available services through providing user-tailored services to inform development of decision-making processes, build the capacity of SERVIR hubs and their partners to provide high quality services, creating a stronger network at the regional and international level. The study will guide users/forecasters how to use EF5 operationally and enhances development of an impact-based flood early warning system with users, linking hydrologic forecasts with vulnerability assessment and risk analysis to mitigate the potential negative impact to the public and properties.

Key words:

Capacity building, drought, flood, hydrologic model, landslide, streamflow,

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