Project Description
In March 2021, UNDP launched the project “Supporting rapid recovery from floods and intercommunal conflict through building resilience and stability in crisis-affected communities” to support disaster response and recovery efforts of crisis-affected communities following massive flooding in South Kivu province.
The project undertakes activities such as the development of an early warning system, public awareness, capacity building of administrative officers in the field of disaster risk response and the environment. One of the key components of the project was to conduct an analysis of disaster risks related to the environment or climate for the territories of Uvira and Fizi.
IRMA undertook this analysis together with Espoir Bagula, a local consultant specialised in geographic information system (GIS). The team used GIZ’s “Ecosystem based Climate Risk Assessment” methodology with a focus on the risk of injury, loss of human life, loss of livelihoods or damage to infrastructure due to flooding. The major pillar of the analysis is the impact chain, a tool that serves to better understand, systematize and visually prioritize the causal factors that participate in the development of a particular risk.
The analysis was based on an unprecedented spatial resolution, namely the “hydro-health areas” (division of health zones based on sub-watersheds due to the fact that data are available irregularly across the different health zones). As for the temporal resolution, it was limited to the present due to the limits of the models and data available concerning future climate predictions for South Kivu. The results of this analysis of risk were mapped and presented to local stakeholders during a final workshop, together with attenuation and mitigation measures for better preparedness and disaster risk reduction.
IRMA’s team for this assignment was Lezlie Moriniere and Charlotte Gendre.