UN-SPIDER / NASRDA / ZFL Interinstitutional Workshop: The Use of Space-Based Information for Flood Response and Early Warning

Floods, exacerbated by climate change, cause tremendous damage to societies around the world. They lead to loss of lives and property, displace people from their homes and destroy livelihoods, as well as they disrupt sustainable development efforts worldwide. Developing countries are particularly susceptible to the impact of floods as societies are more vulnerable and exposed, and less resilient to recover when disasters strike.

Space technologies and services are contributing to monitor such natural hazards, to map their geographical extent, and areas affected by such hazards. The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), the National Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education (CSSTE) and other institutions in Nigeria have been using such space technologies to address challenges posed by such hazards.  

To promote the use of space technologies in disaster risk management and in response and recovery efforts, UN-SPIDER and NASRDA have been carrying out efforts in Nigeria and in other African countries since 2008.  In June 2009 NASRDA signed a cooperation agreement with UNOOSA to become an UN-SPIDER Regional Support Office; and in June 2011 UN-SPIDER carried out a technical advisory mission to Nigeria to take note of advances on the use of space technologies in risk and disaster management applications.  In recent years, UN-SPIDER and NASRDA have been generating maps of areas impacted by floods and droughts and providing them to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).  

To continue efforts to promote the use of space technologies in disaster risk management, emergency response and recovery efforts; NASRDA, NEMA, NIHSA, NiMet, the Centre for Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces of the University of Bonn (ZFL) and UN-SPIDER joined forces to organize the NASRDA / UN-SPIDER / ZFL Interinstitutional Workshop on “The Use of Space-Based Information for Flood Response and Early Warning". This workshop was carried out in Abuja, Nigeria, from 12 to 14 September 2022 and contributed to raise awareness of the recent developments made by the space community regarding its efforts to contribute to disaster response efforts worldwide; and advances by the disaster management community on the topics of emergency operation centres and decision support systems used in these centres to coordinate the response in case of large disasters in a timely and efficient fashion.

Presentations

Session 1: Introduction and Setting the Scene

• NEMA: Interinstitutional coordination efforts in case of large disasters
• NASRDA: Space-based information in case of disasters
• NiMet: Weather forecasting in Nigeria
• NIHSA: Flood forecasting in Nigeria
• ARCSTTE-E: GMES Multi-Scale Flood Monitoring and Assessment Services for West Africa (MiFMASS)
• ECOWAS: Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) activities for flood events
• ZFL: Useful websites and portals from Copernicus

Session 2: Emergency Operation Centres - Flood Management Simulation (Part 1 - Introduction)

• UN-SPIDER: Introduction to Emergency Operation Centres and Decision Support Systems
• NASRDA: Experiences from Nigeria on the use of space-based information during the 2018 floods

Session 3 A-C: Emergency Operation Centres - Flood Management Simulation (Part 2 - Simulation)

• NIHSA: Flood forecasting in Nigeria

Session 3 D: Emergency Operation Centres - Flood Management Simulation (Part 3 - Evaluation and Outlook)

• NASRDA: Taking stock of geospatial data collection in Nigeria
• UN-SPIDER: Improving Early Warning to enhance Early and Efficient Response