Enhancing Early warning System for community based response in Bangladesh under SHOUHARDO-II

  • Bangladesh
  • South Asia

ENTRY DATE: 04.06.2013 | LAST UPDATE: 04.06.2013

SCALE:

  • Countrywide

TARGET AREA:

  • Rural and Urban

BEST PRACTICE IN:

  • Capacity Building
  • Research and Development

KEY SECTOR:

  • Disaster Risk Reduction and Management

FUNDING AMOUNT:

  • USD 100,001 - USD 500,000

Description of Intervention

With recent advances in the weather forecasting, it is now possible to generate high accuracy long lead flood forecasts. RIMES has collaboration with European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) to access high resolution weather forecasts products at global scale for different level applications (i.e. hydrology, water resources, agriculture, etc). The global products are customized to regional and local scale to generate highly accurate probabilistic hydrological forecasts. These long lead forecast information together with advanced models are used to generate different ranges of discharge forecasts for flood risk management. With the community outreach program these information are disseminated and applied for community level decision making. After pioneer and value addition for the society, the technology would be transferred to the FFWC.
 

The project supports:
 
Technology development
o Operational medium range (1-10 days) flood forecasting at three major rivers (Brahmaputra, Ganges and Megna) basin with 38 water level stations 
o Operational long range (20-25 days) flood outlook
o Operational flash flood forecast
o Development of web based DSS for flood risk management  for FFWC
 
Demonstration of technology application 
o Capacity building of FFWC on newly evolved forecasts system 
o Community outreach program to 10-15 communities to receive warning, interpret and response on medium range forecasts 
o Community outreach program to 5 communities to receive warning, interpret and response on long range (20-25 days) range forecasts 
o Community outreach program to 2 communities to receive warning, interpret and response on flash flood forecast 
 
Technology transfer and capacity building 
o Capacity building of FFWC on the use of models developed under the project
o Transfer of models to FFWC 
o Capacity building of national and local level institutions, including DMB, DAE, CARE Bangladesh and local NGOs to translate forecast information into im-pact outlooks and selection of response options
o Capacity building of BWDB staff and partner NGO, farmers, and Upazila Disaster Management Committee members on probabilistic flood forecast, DSS tool, and their application in planning and decision-making, including data archiving and GIS-based risk mapping.  
o Enhancement of observation system to increase data availability for forecasting and warning.
 

Problems to be Addressed

Household level response to flood warning. 

Objectives

The project shall enhance the lead time for flood early warning and preparedness in Bangladesh by:
 
Expanding the 1-10 days flood forecasting to larger pilot areas ( under CARE SHOUHARDO II program areas
Operationalizing  monthly and seasonal forecasts
Piloting flash flood early warning system at Sunamgang & Cox’Bazaar area
Complimenting existing cyclone prediction program of Bangladesh Meteorological Department