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.

capture of flood ivory coast
Photo of a road during a severe flooding situation in Ivory Coast in September 2018. Courtesy: Edouard Ouattara.
Flow of information
The operational forecasting chain used in FANFAR. Each day a new hydrological forecast is produced and distributed to enable productive applications in West Africa.

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.

Partners

bar of logo of partners

Find out more about the partners of the FANFAR consortium.

News & events

Flag of Nigeria
January 30, 2020

Upcoming 3rd FANFAR workshop/atelier

The 3rd FANFAR workshop is scheduled to take place at the Hotel de Bently in Abuja, Nigeria on 10-14 Feb…
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UN SPIDER 2019
December 18, 2019

FANFAR was presented at UN-SPIDER conference

FANFAR’s participation at the UN-SPIDER Bonn International Conference “Space-based Solutions for Disaster Management in Africa: Challenges, Applications, Partnerships”, objectives and…
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Illustration about research gate
November 6, 2019

FANFAR on ResearchGate

FANFAR is now a ‘project’ on the online social media ResearchGate. Follow the project and share its updates within your…
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Flags of Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau
October 18, 2019

Website now available in Portuguese

The FANFAR website is now available in Portuguese, the 3rd official language spoken in West Africa!   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Le site…
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Photo of participants of workshop 2019
May 21, 2019

Second workshop summary

FANFAR gathered stakeholders for second co-design and training workshop on operational flood forecasting and alerts in West Africa
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flag of Ghana
February 25, 2019

Upcoming 2nd FANFAR workshop/atelier

The 2nd FANFAR workshop is scheduled to take place at the AngeHill Hotel in Accra, Ghana on 9-12 April 2019….
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