Can drought and flood hazards be skillfully and robustly assessed at fine spatial resolution in Maldives and Sri Lanka?
Summary
The project goals were assess drought, and flood hazard risk using climate, terrestrial and societal information. So far, we have been able to
- establish partnerships with government, private sector and civil society groups
- Compile climate and disaster data
- Provide a weekly, monthly and annual digest of climate diagnosis, monitoring and predictions.
- Set up data management systems
- Set up instruments for
- automatic weather stations with online access.
- air quality measurements in Male
- soil moisture
- Used these data for real time monitoring
- Undertake case studies to diagnose the role of climate and other factors.
- drought and water scarcity in Greater Male
- water scarcity assessment by island in Maldives
- dengue risk in Maldives
- Repeated flood disaster in Akurana in Sri Lanka
- 2016 Landslide Disaster in Aranayaka in Sri Lanka
- Write research papers
- Develop information provision portals
- Communicate via newspapers, blogs and social media
- Provide in-service training and internships to about 12 junior scientists
- Contribute content for teaching at the Maldives National University and University of Peradeniya
- Undertake timely reporting of quarterly and annual project reports.
Key Information Resources
Assessing disaster hazards project flyer
Project Update at National Academy of Sciences
Personnel
Principal Investigator: Prof.P.Wickramagamage (FECT)
Co-Principal Investigators: Dr.Lareef Zubair (FECT)
Dr.Zahid- Maldivian meteorological service (MMS)
Project Duration 2015-2018
Sponsors:
Partners:
US Partner: Goddard Space Flight Center-NASA (NASA-GFSC)
- Contact- Dr.Randall Koster
The Maldives National University (MNU)
- Contact- Dr.Shazla Mohamed
Photographs and Videos
Extended Summary
Project Goals
To develop operational drought, flood and landslide hazard assessments using climate, terrestrial and societal information and to assess drought, flood and landslide risk more reliably in Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
Objectives
- Engage with Key stakeholders for guidance and effectiveness.
- Develop Data resources.
- Develop Historical hazard indices for Sri Lanka and Maldives.
- Develop indices to Assess multiple methodologies for hazard estimation using available data.
- Assess vulnerability and resilience for the different hazards.
- Assess predictions from satellite and model predictions to cast hazards in advance.
- Develop multivariate hazard estimation methodology for prediction.
- Diagnose physical underpinnings of differences of multivariate indices to improve skills.
- Capacity building through improving research infrastructure and training for students.
Development Outcomes:
- Improved risk management and policy making.
- Use of advanced climate information.
- Generation & application of near-term climate change information.
- Development of expertise in application of near-term climate change information.
- Training of undergraduates, researchers, disaster managers.
What has been done?
I. Climate Analysis and Tools-Progress
- Compilation of climate predictions.
- Ongoing weekly & monthly dissemination of climate reports.
- Developed tools for drought monitoring
- Drought Portals for Sri Lanka and Maldives, which are comprehensive resources on droughts were launched.
II. Dissemination and Training
- Conference contribution.
- Training of junior scientists.
- Conducting University lectures at UoP Sri Lanka & MNU Maldives.
- Web & social media dissemination of products.
- Workshops, Media outreach.
- Communication strategy for Maldives.
III. Case Studies
Through case studies and the monitoring systems, the team has undertaken a detailed study of information to support decision making for- Water Budgeting for each Islands in Maldives
- Flood Prediction without significant observation
- Drought Monitoring based on satellite data
- Air Quality impacts in an agricultural area affected by Industry
- Landslides and cyclone in Sri Lanka
Publications
- Peer-reviewed Publications and Proceedings
- Journal References
- Other Research Outputs (not peer reviewed)
- Technical Research Presentations
Dissemination
Blogs
For Climate Bulletins Sri Lanka
For Climate Bulletins Maldives
About News on Climate And Project Themes- Maldives
About News on Climate And Project Themes- Sri Lanka
Annual Reports
- 2015-2016
- 2016-2017
- 2017-2018
- 2018-2019
During this period meetings were conducted to plan project implementation and staff were recruited and infrastructure was setup. Data acquisition in Maldives and Sri Lanka commenced. We undertook case studies on hazards in Sri Lanka. Instrumentations were handed over to Maldivian partners and data from the instruments were acquired. We communicated regularly with researchers, partners and stakeholders.
During this period we held meetings for planning next steps and reviewing the project work done so far. We made headway with project implementation in the Maldives. Infrastructure was improved for better communication and security. We continued data acquisition and worked on specific hazards in the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
