Developing flood risk maps for multi-level humanitarian decision making

Abstract:

Humanitarian decision makers can benefit from tailored flood-risk layers. To improve anticipatory decision making, humanitarian organizations are increasingly utilizing climate and risk tools that can guide the prioritization and de-prioritization of activities. First though, humanitarian decision makers are faced with deciding which product best captures risk for their set of decisions. For example, a disaster manager could use a flood-risk map to prioritize which district in a country should take early action in a specific season. However, the various types of flood-risk maps/tools/products that can be used for a risk assessment might not have the spatio-temporal resolution or essential information on population vulnerability necessary to make an informed decision. The activity presented here demonstrates a movement towards a global flood-risk layer driven by questions and considerations of the humanitarian community in light of their standard operating procedures for flood-risk management. The structured involvement of humanitarian decision makers in the construction and parameterization elements of flood-risk model development increases the chances that the outputs are beneficial to their decision making processes. The flood-risk layer is high resolution, combining seasonal flood exposure—based on historical frequency, type of flooding, magnitude of impact—and vulnerability of populations. We seek to highlight the spatial intersection of flood exposure and at-risk populations to meet a specific need of humanitarian organizations.