Flooding is a rapidly growing concern in West Africa. Several floods have occurred in recent years with severe consequences including loss of lives, displacements, disruption to public services, destroyed homes, damaged infrastructure, and delayed transportation. Flooding is also projected to increase with climate change. Hence, there is an urgent need for improved flood management in the region.
Access to operational forecasts and alerts is a critical component in addressing the flood challenges in West Africa. FANFAR is an European Union-financed project that co-designs, co-adapts, and co-operates a short- and medium-term hydrological forecasting and alert pilot system for West Africa. It aims to provide key stakeholders with reliable and timely access to operational forecasts and alerts enabled by a robust forecast production system adapted to regional conditions and operated by West African institutions.
FANFAR enhances the capacity of West African institutions to forecast, alert for and manage floods.
FANFAR aims to provide reliable and timely access to flood forecasts and alerts through a range of distribution channels to ensure that the information actually reaches its target audience. The distribution channels currently include web visualisation, SMS, e-mail, and application programming interfaces (API). The forecasting system is based on an open-source hydrological model employed in a cloud-based Information and Communications Technology (ICT) environment to ensure operational robustness despite frequent cuts to electricity and internet supply in the region.
Read more about the aims and approach of the FANFAR project.
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