[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/10861\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EFlood warnings for Africa advance with EU expertise\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELike most people, Mark Noort reacted with horror to images last month of devastating floods in Libya. Unlike most others, Noort had a professional reason to follow the drama.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAn expert in Earth observation technology, he took part in a research project that used EU funding to set up a flood-alert system in another African country: Kenya.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EEarly warnings\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENoort had that successful work in mind as he watched the impact of torrential rains in Libya that caused two dams to burst, inundate the coastal city of Derna, destroy entire neighbourhoods and kill thousands of people. Survivors have said they received no adequate alert.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Putting an early-warning system in place could have warned people and the number of casualties would have been far lower,\u2019 said Noort, a Dutch native who is an independent consultant on geospatial information applications. \u2018Although it was a flash flood, it still takes some time to get to the urban area.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe EU project \u2013 called \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/776691\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan lang=\u0022EN-US\u0022\u003ETWIGA\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E \u2013 established such an early-warning system with the Kenya Meteorological Department in Narok, a town located in the southwestern part of the country near the capital Nairobi. The initiative wrapped up in July 2022 after more than four years.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENarok regularly gets inundated in part because it is located in a basin known as the Great Rift Valley, with a flash flood in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/news\/2022\/02\/two-die-property-destroyed-in-narok-flash-floods\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan lang=\u0022EN-US\u0022\u003EFebruary 2022\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E resulting in two deaths and widespread destruction.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe alert system relies on satellite data and official weather forecasts combined with additional \u2013 but relatively inexpensive \u2013 weather stations and water-flow measurements of rivers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResidents can subscribe to phone alerts. The system is now being improved in a follow-up project \u2013 \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/101086209\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan lang=\u0022EN-US\u0022\u003ETEMBO Africa\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E \u2013 that started in February 2023 and will include monitoring of smaller rivers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018If you get five or even just two hours of warning, that is valuable,\u2019 said Nick van de Giesen, who ran TWIGA, now leads TEMBO and is a professor of water-resource management at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. \u2018We are generating information that can be turned into actions.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFlood prediction allows people to move to safety, relocate animals and vehicles and block latrines.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDam flows\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMore places in Africa are becoming vulnerable to floods as a result of climate change and urbanisation, which has increased the amount of hard surfaces that prevent water absorption by the ground. Inadequate drainage also often plays a role.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The idea now is to roll out a flood-prediction service throughout Kenya and after that to find partners in other African countries to do the same,\u2019 said Noort.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnother part of TWIGA tackled water levels behind dams. It deployed technology for monitoring inflows into reservoirs for hydropower plants in Ghana and Zambia.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWater can sometimes reach such heights that dam operators are forced to spill it through sluice gates to drain a reservoir. This can cause flooding downstream. It also wastes potential hydroelectricity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003EIf you get five or even just two hours of warning, that is valuable.\r\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProfessor Nick van de Giesen, TWIGA and TEMBO Africa\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBetter management of reservoirs by measuring rainfall and river flow upstream was shown in TWIGA to be a game changer. Knowing how much water is coming allows dam operators to act before an emergency release becomes necessary.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Maybe you could more gradually spill water or \u2013 ideally \u2013 generate extra electricity by letting the water run through your turbines,\u2019 said van de Giesen.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EScientists are working with local partners in Ghana and Zambia to create easy-to-use technology. This should prevent deluges in towns and villages downstream of hydropower dams.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It is better to spill than have the dams washed away, like what happened in Libya,\u2019 said van de Giesen, who has worked on water projects as an engineer in West Africa.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESeed security\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESeed insurance is also being trialled for farmers in Ghana, where a \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S2667010021004121\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan lang=\u0022EN-US\u0022\u003Esemi-arid climate\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;contributes to crop losses.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUnder a planned scheme, growers would pay a little extra when buying seeds in return for compensation in the event there isn\u2019t enough rain after they\u2019re sown.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe key is to tell planters when to sow and know when there has been insufficient rain for germination.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018If you have small farmers, with less than two hectares, you cannot send insurance agents to all,\u2019 said van de Giesen.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESatellites and rainfall detectors automatically signal when insufficient amounts have fallen.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile satellites play a role high up, they are unable to scrutinise rainfall down on the ground for farms.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EInstead, project scientists have turned to cosmic rays for a helping hand.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFast payouts\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESubatomic particles from space \u2013 called neutrons \u2013 zip around at speeds up to 20 000 kilometres a second on Earth. When there\u2019s plenty of rain, the particles bounce off water molecules, slowing them down.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers built a kit that can detect this neutron slowdown, which signals rainfall. The system combines this information with satellite images to improve predictions about when an individual farm faces drought.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn a drought scenario, a farmer automatically receives seeds in compensation or a payout to buy more if needed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018A big innovation here is that we\u2019re going to be really fast with paying out,\u2019 said van de Giesen.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA Ghanaian insurance group plans to make the product available to local insurers and banks in 2024.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018This is really about anchoring satellite observations to measurements on the ground,\u2019 said van de Giesen.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EResearch in this article was funded by the EU. 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