CREST/EF5 capacity building to enhance resilience to hydrodynamic disasters in emerging regions

Water and water-related disasters, e.g. flooding, landslide and droughts, are affecting the world and it is important for decision makers and experts to build the capacity of forecasting hydrodynamic disasters and safeguarding people’s life and property. This study focuses on building capacity of decision makers and analysts with an aim to create and support a robust framework for decision makers in integrated water resource management. Capacity building training workshops has been conducted using Coupled Routing and Excess Storage (CREST) and Ensemble Framework for Flash Flood Forecasting (EF5) distributed hydrological modeling jointly developed by University of Oklahoma (OU) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), involving Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), ICPAC and Kenyan Meteorological department (KMD). The OU_Applied Science Team (AST) in collaboration with RCMRD provided an EF5 hydrologic model website to KMD to visualize and forecast streamflow. Further, an advanced EF5 training was conducted in East Africa and a system to collect citizen reports to gather observations of flooding was developed. This effort will improve awareness of and access to available services through providing user-tailored services to inform development of decision-making processes and build the capacity of SERVIR hubs and their partners to provide high quality services, creating a stronger network at the regional and international level. The study will guide users/forecasters on how to use EF5 operationally and enhances development of an impact-based flood early warning system with users, linking hydrologic forecasts with vulnerability assessment and risk analysis to mitigate the potential negative impact to the public and properties. Key words: Capacity building, drought, flood, hydrologic model, landslide, streamflow.