A week after about 179 people were killed in deadly floods in the western part of Japan in July, the country experienced the hottest days in 5 years. Across Europe, the summer heat continues, with parts at risk of drought conditions. Dry soils and vegetation have led to devastating wildfires, even in areas close to the Arctic. And while below-normal rainfall has been predicted from June through August, the thunderstorms that will occur are likely to be severe, resulting in flash flooding and damaging winds – as was the case in the south of France, which was recently hit by severe flooding.

There is a general agreement of an ongoing change in the climate, bringing with it much uncertainty of the impacts. We can expect continued heatwaves and flooding in parts of Europe, increasing hurricanes in the Caribbean and intense rainfall in parts of Asia.

The unrelenting news about heatwaves, rainfall, and so forth, directs my thoughts to my vegetables, fruits and plants at home. Knowing what climatic condition to expect in the coming days is valuable information that help me better plan and prepare myself to safeguard my vegetables, fruits and plants.

While my garden is just a small piece of a larger picture, facing such uncertainty, the way we respond to the changing climate can have socio-economic benefits, and save the lives of many. So, how can we be well prepared for climatic variability? Is there a way to reduce the impacts of extreme events such as flooding and drought? Accessing the necessary information is a part of the planning process, while interpreting the information for decision making and planning is the other part.

A way to bring these parts together is through the Flood and Drought Portal, which is a key output of the Flood and Drought Management Tools project. The web-based portal has a number of applications that aim to support planning and decision-making for issues related to climate variability and change. The technical applications can be used individually or together, providing users with a scientific approach for identifying and evaluating the risk and impacts for flood and drought events, as well the mitigation or adaptation measures.

Image source: www.chris-wells.com

Access to accurate data and information has been identified as limited and as a challenge for many stakeholders. The data and information application in the portal was developed to accommodate this basic need, providing stakeholders with access to various types of information for basins, including climate information (e.g. rainfall, temperature), vegetation cover, soil moisture, flood and drought indices, and socio-economic data. The amount of data provided by the tool is extensive and provides good insights by offering historical and forecasted data. For example, it is possible to visualise rainfall data for the last 15 years while also projecting both short- and long-term rainfall probabilities. With this information, it is possible to design and plan drought or flood prevention plans or crop irrigation plans. Through this application users have the opportunity to select and use the parameters that best fit their interests. Another feature of the application is the possibility to analyse the data and not only visualise it in maps, but also in charts and tables.

Flood and Drought Portal

Data and Information application – Rainfall distribution in the Chao Phraya Basin

For transboundary basins[1], access to the same information is essential for good cooperation, understanding, and achieving mutual interests. The data and information application provides stakeholders with the needed information to formulate and update management plans, and assess and evaluate basin conditions.

Image source: www.chris-wells.com

The Data and Information tool has information on each data type available on the web portal, and there is an accessible user manual providing guidance on the functionality of the application. The application provides users with a free source of data of near real-time, forecasting and climate predictions for any transboundary basin. Much like when I look at the weather forecast for the coming days to inform my weekend gardening activities, through the proper use of the information presented by the data and information application, better planning and management of flood and drought impacts is achievable and on a more substantial scale.

The Data and Information application is available for all registered users through the Flood and Drought Portal: http://www.flooddroughtmonitor.com.

About the Flood and Drought Management Tools project

The Flood and Drought Management Tools (FDMT) project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), International Waters (IW) and implemented by UN Environment, with the International Water Association (IWA) and DHI as the executing agencies. The project developed a package of web-based technical applications (tools), accessible through the Flood and Drought Portal (www.flooddroughtmonitor.com). The tools can be applied individually or together to include information about floods, droughts and future scenarios into planning from the transboundary basin to water utility level. The project is being implemented from 2014-2018 in Volta, Lake Victoria and Chao Phraya as the pilot basins.

[1] A transboundary basin is a basin that crosses at least one political border, either a border within a nation or an international boundary.

Climate change impacts are increasingly severe, more frequent and less predictable, impacting the wellbeing of societies, the economy and the sustainable management of water resources. The collection of, and most importantly, access to data and information, such as rainfall, temperature and potential evapotranspiration, water flow, and water levels, and having the right methodologies in place to analyse the information, is critically important if we are to address climate change and mitigate its impacts.

With the increase in computational power and the vast progress in ICT, we are seeing a rapidly growing capacity for data collation. We find ourselves in the information era where, on a day-to-day basis, the efficiency and practicality of decision-making processes and planning are being heavily influenced by knowledge based on the power of big data analysis.

Data and information are the basis for any planning activity. Yet, despite significant progress the information era has brought around the world, for many countries data availability and access is often one of the key constraints for planning. Addressing issues around water resources management cannot be adequately tackled if there is no reliable information to facilitate decision-making processes and inform planning practices.

Planning for floods and droughts, particularly in transboundary basins involving several countries, requires us to adopt an approach that facilitates the collection and sharing of the information necessary for land, water and urban area managers to make informed decisions. Yet a meeting of international water regulatory authorities held recently in London, highlighted the use of data and information as one of the major challenges they faced[i].

The Flood and Drought Management Tools (FDMT) project is developing and testing a methodology for basin organisations and local users, such as water utilities, to integrate information on floods and droughts into planning across the Volta, Lake Victoria and Chao Phraya basins. Early in the project, it became clear that limited data availability was a key constraint. The amount of available data, the quality of the data, the number and density of the monitoring stations, and the willingness to share information within the basins were all factors in undermining both national and transboundary planning to address floods and droughts.

Data portal showing spatial data at a specified time for the Volta Basin

The project’s success depends upon having access to basic sets of data (historic and forecasted climate, drought and flood related indices), yet some basins lack this information. To overcome this issue a basic data set has been made available through a web-based data portal, providing stakeholders with access to near real-time satellite based data.

The data portal is an online platform enabling users to view and download remote sensing data. The intention is to ensure the availability and accessibility of different data types required for planning and decision-making around flood and drought events, for example climate data, vegetation data in the form of land use or Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, or flood related data including flood risk maps.

When land, water and urban area managers are able to access and make sense of the information, their capacity to address and respond to the right issues is enhanced. The availability of this information also helps establish benchmarks needed to monitor and evaluate the progress of response plans, ensuring that decisions meet the intended outcomes, or prompting a need to improve or change plans. Without data, the decision making process to improve outcomes would be ineffective.

Access to information is a necessary precursor for decision making processes and planning. Just as important is understanding the information, and how this contributes to informed decision-making and planning. To address this, awareness workshops are held in the 3 basins. The workshops facilitate discussion of the role data plays in planning and decision-making processes, and how to interpret and understand the information. The process has helped to endorse ICT as a valuable approach to integrate information about floods, droughts and future scenarios into planning.

The next decades will see a dramatic rise in the use of data and information. This will feed into decision-making processes and influence policy. It is important that these methodologies are not developed for the sake of it, but are established to have a productive impact that offers benefits to those who need it. Only by doing so will we progress towards sustainable water resources.

_{[i] The 2^nd International Water Regulators Forum was held In London in 2015. For more information read one of the outcome reports from the meeting: Beyond Compliance Monitoring and Reporting.}

Join us at our workshop during the World Water Congress and Exhibition in Brisbane:

Drought Resilient Water Management

Workshop
Date: 10 October 2016, 15.30 – 17.00
Venue: Room M3, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre

How are current planning practices and tools used to ensure drought resilient solutions and how can they be improved?

Drought is an important issue for integrated water resources management and planning. Decision Support Systems for drought planning and management should provide decision makers with an effective and systematic means of assessing current and future drought conditions, developing mitigation and developing response options to minimize economic stress, environmental losses, and social hardship.

Floods and droughts have always occurred, but now, in almost every corner of the world, we face flood and drought events that are increasingly common, more severe and less predictable. This is being driven by climate change, but also impacted by a growing global population, urbanisation, changing land use, and increased demand for water from agriculture and industry. In flood and drought terms, we face the perfect storm.

Floods and droughts are no respecters of geography or wealth. Whether the record-breaking drought in California, or devastating floods in Southern Africa that saw 400 percent higher rainfall than usual in 2015, this is a global issue with impacts at the local level. As concerns around the impacts of flood and drought events continue to grow, there is a need for more investment to support stakeholders to manage and plan for the impacts, from the city utility scale to the basin scale.

This is particularly complex in transboundary river basins where two or more countries share both water resources and the risks associated with flood and drought events. This requires land, water and urban area managers across the basin to improve their understanding of flood and drought impacts, to prepare for water related risks by integrating scientifically sound information into their planning processes, and to cooperate and collaborate across basins.

The Flood and Drought Management Tools (FDMT) project recognises this critical need. Working with stakeholders in three pilot basins – the Chao Phraya in Thailand, Lake Victoria in East Africa and the Volta in West Africa – it aims to include information on climate change and land use changes into existing planning approaches to improve the ability to recognise and address the increased frequency, magnitude and unpredictability of flood and drought events.

The project is developing a computer software-based planning tool, a Decision Support System (DSS), collating multiple sources of flood and drought information in one flexible user-friendly interface. This allows users to visualise the information and analyse it to make more sound information-based decisions and plans. The development of a planning DSS and associated tools, such as a web portal for downloading climate data derived from remote sensing, is driven by the needs of the project stakeholders.

Developing initiatives that bring together technological solutions and multiple stakeholders with different problems and needs has inherent risks. If the time and resources devoted to the initiative are not to be wasted, the tools must offer clear benefits, be acceptable and easy to use for stakeholders; and stakeholders must be motivated to help make the project a success.

The FDMT project has carried out a series of technical trainings in the pilot basins intended to transfer knowledge of the functionality of the planning DSS to users. These are essential in further developing the planning DSS and ensuring sustainability beyond the project time frame. Following the first technical training held in November 2015 in Bangkok, Thailand, further technical trainings were held in Kisumu, Kenya and Accra, Ghana. The trainings brought together key stakeholders from basin, country and local level, including basin organisations, catchment organisation, utilities, national institutes and international organisations, around a common planning tool.

The trainings gave an opportunity to test and comment on the DSS functionally, suggesting areas for improvement, helping avoid redundant components, identifying missing features and ensuring stakeholder needs are addressed. Training exercises focused on planning, and linking planning with tools to analyse drought impacts and tools for seasonal forecasting and climate projections.

By highlighting the need for a cross agency approach, where data collectors, regulators, and other stakeholders need to cooperate in their efforts to manage impacts; and showing how information can be easily visualised and analysed to feed into decision making and planning for droughts and floods, the DSS is a step closer to helping users understand flood and drought vulnerability from a climate change perspective. This will help improve decision making to reduce risks and mitigate the consequences of an uncertain world.

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The FDMT project is a Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) coordinated project, in which DHI and the International Water Association (IWA) are implementing partners.

The reports from the technical trainings in Kisumu and Accra will be available on the project website. If you would like to know more about the project or have specific questions on the trainings, please do not hesitate to contact the FDMT team.

For many basins around the world, the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and communities are becoming more and more visible, prompting a strong need to improve capacity and planning around extreme events such as floods and droughts.

To contribute the use of information about floods, droughts and future scenarios into planning across scales; from basins to water utilities, DHI and the International Water Association (IWA) held a 3 day technical training in Bangkok, giving key stakeholders a first impression of a  computer software-based decision support system (DSS) being developed in the Flood and Drought Management Tools (FDMT) project.

The event was the first of a series of trainings planned to enable users to consolidate information that can be used to make decisions on how to prepare and respond to extreme events. This DSS will consist of a number of tools that can support institutions within basins to address impacts stemming from flood and drought events.

When thinking of the Asia-Pacific region, my head is flooded with the idea of hour long down pours and monsoons. The thought of the region as drought prone barely crosses my mind. During a visit to Thailand during the inception phase of the FDMT project in 2014, stakeholders told us of the devastating flooding Thailand experienced in 2011, amounting in the loss of about 46 billion USD.

Since early 2015, Thailand has been experiencing quite the opposite; a prolonged drought that is likely to stretch into 2016 and continue to compromise the country’s water resources undermining the ecosystem and country’s social and economic development.

The FDMT project could not have come at a better time for Thailand. Certainly Thailand has vast knowledge and experience with flood management and planning; institutions such as the Royal Irrigation Department (RID), Hydro and Agro Informatics Institute (HAII), National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC), Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA), Provincial Waterworks Authority (PWA), etc., have experience in flood forecasting and planning.

However, knowledge around drought management and planning is less available. It does however provide the project with a good entry point to give institutions dealing with the drought situation the tools needed to ensure better resilience for future droughts.

The training helped participants understand the planning process can be supported through the DSS.

Through clear and comprehensive step-by-step guidelines, users will be able to access satellite and remote sensing data via a GIS system (QGIS) which can be brought into the DSS interface, where the information can be analysed and visualised.

For example, QGIS, a free and open source GIS software, has been integrated in the DSS allowing users to visualise information in the form of maps. This is useful for identifying areas that are and will be prone to drought or to map out a water utility’s supply system, etc.

The DSS integrates information from the GIS system as well as observation data and local data that is available.

The workshop was an important step in the development of the DSS as it provided an opportunity for different users from a variety of organization to test the software and provide feedback that will feed into the further development of the tools within the system. This will ensure that the end-product will benefit the users.

Just as important is the buy in at a more senior level. Decision makers need to understand the value of the outputs of the DSS in contributing to informed planning to respond and prepare to flood and droughts. To make this link, a Flood and Drought Symposium with high level representatives from national and international institutions was held in Bangkok, Thailand prior to the workshop. The focus was on the importance of improving flood and drought management and planning and the essential use of data and information for informed decision making.

This event, in parallel with the technical trainings, is essential to the success of the DSS. Although information and communications technologies such as this system help enhancing our ability to minimise risks and mitigate the impacts associated to climate change, mobilising support and building capacity for their effective use is as relevant as the technologies’ potential itself.

The energy and enthusiasm from participants in the training was encouraging and has given a renewed reminder of what the project can bring to organisations willing to improve their planning processes around flood and drought management.

I look forward to the next training in Bangkok and in the other pilot basins (Lake Victoria basin and Volta), and can only hope for a similar reception there.

Don’t miss the presentations given at the UN Floods and Droughts Symposium in Thailand and the news story produced by NBT World.

Kenya’s flood prone Nyando District highlights the growing need for better planning and greater investment.

During a fact finding trip on my recent visit to Kenya, our group huddled around a community spokesman as he reminisced about the devastating floods of 2014. It was clear that communities within Kenya’s Nyando district were hard hit by the heavy rains. Nyando district is traditionally a flood prone area, people are used to flooding, but these floods were different. During our visit we saw that flood protection works were in place to manage the flow of water during the rainy season; but the protective dykes alongside the Nyando river were no match for the rising water levels.

As we approached the dyke, I could not help but question its structural integrity. Our guide explained that during the heavy rainfall, water levels overtopped the dyke and breached the structure in three places. Looking along the dyke, I could see overgrown shrubs and the eroded surfaces. While not comparable, having lived the past eight years in the Netherlands where about two thirds of the country is vulnerable to flooding, the integrity of a dyke is of national importance. The country is among the most densely populated on earth, so it is understandable that the Dutch government invests significant resources to ensure flood defences are properly maintained and updated.

While the trip highlighted a number of things, two stood out for me. First, floods are not a new phenomenon in the Nyando area, but the impacts increasingly disrupt the lives of the local community and threaten their wellbeing by creating health hazards, disrupting the economy, and contributing to the loss of harvests, livestock, buildings and infrastructure. Second, the experience in the area, and Kisumu as a whole, demonstrates an increasing need for better planning to protect people and the environment; planning that engages the community in the activities undertaken by water basin organisations responsible for preventing and managing the impacts of extreme weather events.

This was one of the key things highlighted by Dr. Canisius Kanangire, Executive Secretary of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC), in his opening address during the Flood and Drought Management Tool Project Steering Committee meeting held in Kisumu, Kenya the following day.

Climate change impacts are being felt most strongly through their effects upon water; so it should not come as a surprise that flood and drought events are becoming more frequent, increasingly severe and less predictable. The consequences of these extreme climate events are increasingly devastating for millions of people around the world. Large numbers of communities are at risk and need to adapt to this reality by building resilience and adapting to future challenges to protect human welfare, economies and ecosystems.

Delegates address the Flood and Drought Management Tool Project Steering Committee
Climate variability, in particular floods and droughts, has a significant effect on the sustainability of water supplies. The status of water resources in our ecosystems is changing, becoming less predictable, and the patterns of the past are no longer reliable. Water service providers face an immense challenge to ensure safe water (good quality, clean and reliable) for consumers as flood and drought events impact the operation and management of facilities.

Prior to our visit to Nyando, the group visited a number of facilities of Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company (KIWASCO), including Dunga Intake Works – contributing 45% of KIWASCO’s (lake) water abstraction; Kajulu Intake Works – contributing 55% of its (river) water abstraction; and the Kisumu Water Treatment facility and Wastewater Treatment facility for domestic and industrial effluents.

The site visits were part of the 2-day meeting with members of the Flood and Drought Management Tools Project Steering Committee (SC). The SC will bridge the connection between reality in the project pilot basins – Volta Basin, Lake Victoria Basin and Chao Phraya Basin – and the tools being developed, to ensure the project develops flexible, adaptable and usable tools from basin to local levels. Without the full engagement and contribution from local partners, the project would have little relevance. KIWASCO is among one of the many stakeholders with which the project will engage through Water Safety Plans (WSPs).

As with basin level organisations, the project will help improve the ability of local organisations and institutions to address the increased frequency of flood and drought events. As all three pilot basins experience different issues relating to flood and drought, there is a growing need for a tool that is practical and universal.

Visiting the various KIWASCO facilities demonstrated how the project could be of value for utilities; and how to fit the WSP framework within the Flood and Drought Management Tool to assist KIWASCO in better guiding the operational procedures of management and planning. Championing improved planning processes is important. Therefore, it is essential that the project brings to the attention of and shares with utilities, basin organisations and other organisations the value of such a tool.

As Charles Biney, Executive Director of the Volta Basin Authority, stated on the last day of the meeting, “we should continue to build the ‘water fraternity’”. This reflects the need to share our experiences, and further strengthen the relationships that are being built to develop tools to assist water professionals in their planning processes, and ensure decision-making is based on sound, validated information.

Climate change represents one of the many challenges we face today, its disruptive influence on water management is perceived to be one of the many critical risks facing our world: a risk of high likelihood and high impact on human wellbeing, ecosystems and economies.

Extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, will increase in both severity and frequency, while water scarcity will become far more widespread and affect millions of people globally. Growing population, increasing urbanisation, changing land usage and economic development all amplify the impact of climate change; how we manage this will determine the future sustainability of our planet and its resources.

As the world’s population continues to urbanise, climate change will continue to influence the urban environment in which we live. This is not a new phenomenon, but the urgency of the situation is. We know that with research and technology development we can continue to improve our understanding of the impacts of climate change on urban environments. However, we need to move away from just developing solutions and push for their implementation. Understanding what this means for cities will be central to creating the sustainable cities of the future; cities that are adaptive and resilient.

In Europe, about 75% of the population lives in urban areas; a figure that is likely to increase in the coming years. This means a growing demand for water and sanitation provisions. New solutions, ones that can be effectively – cost effective, carbon and energy efficient, etc. – implemented in cities, will be required to deal with the new paradigm.

IWA and its partners have already shown that this is possible. The European Union funded PREPARED project, aimed at enabling the water sector to better adapt and cope with climate change, highlighted that the water supply and sanitation systems of cities and their catchment areas can adapt and be resilient to the challenges of climate change.

Placing real and existing needs at the centre of the PREPARED project meant innovative solutions were not only developed, but also implemented by water utilities. By championing advanced strategies to meet the water sanitation challenges brought about by climate change, it allowed utilities to plan for future needs.

The 7th World Water Forum 2015 champions the need to transition from solutions to implementation. As the core value of this year’s forum and drawing from solutions identified in the previous event, implementation will be materialized through the ‘implementation roadmaps’ so as to catalyse collective action and positive change. It will help facilitate the needed shift from solutions to implementation; bridging the platform of science and technology to water issues and contributing to the SDGs.

The forum will show that identifying solutions is only one part of the equation, and a solution is only as good as its implementation. We must move towards a situation where implementation becomes as critical as finding solutions. We need to focus more on how this can be done: how we can get the right resources to the right people at the right time to ensure that solutions are implemented and are successful. How we can combine the science and technology with policies and systems to contribute towards more concrete and integrated roadmaps for implementation.

The International Water and Climate Forum comes at a good time to continue the discussion around water supply and sanitation in the context of climate change. To support the transition from solutions to implementation, this gathering will connect water researcher and technology with high profile water utility managers and CEOs. These water leaders are well positioned to influence implementation of the many solutions at our disposal today, and to demonstrate how this can be achieved.

Personally, this is an exciting process to be involved in. The outcomes of the International Forum can provide significant synergistic opportunities that utilities and other sector leaders can adopt to improve preparedness for the impacts that urban environments will experience due to climate change. These can act as inspiration for the application of solutions in other areas. The solutions are there, but how these are implemented is important: the synergies are strong but priorities across sectors vary. I think this is both the challenge and the opportunity, and this is where we should be in the water sector.

The six phases of BPM maturity (Source: Gartner)