Involvement

A low-cost network of sensors built from open hardware that sends flood and mudflow alerts to officials and community leaders in Chosica, Peru. 

A five-step method for building flood early warning systems with local communities, municipalities and national weather and civil defence services in the Andes.

It was developed by CIIFEN, the International Research Centre on El Niño, under the regional programme PRASDES, which Finland’s foreign ministry financed. It joins the four components of early warning set out by the UN disaster-reduction office to an approach of the Organization of American States in which trained community volunteers operate simple rain and river-level instruments. 

In 2015-2016, residents of 19 communities in Escoma, Bolivia, mapped flood-prone areas with the municipality to build a local flood early warning system.

A community flood early warning system was built in Querecotillo, Peru, in 2016, with residents mapping flood zones and rehearsing an evacuation drill. CIIFEN worked with the municipality, the civil defence institute INDECI and the weather service SENAMHI between January and September 2016.

Residents of two flood-prone communities in Chad described how they already warn each other and prepare for floods, and what support they want. 

The Zambia Red Cross acted on a flood forecast in January 2023 to warn and equip households in Kitwe and Kafue before the water arrived.

Municipal initiative integrating persons with disabilities into DRR and infrastructure planning through disaggregated data collection, workshops with caregivers and disability organisations, and a permanent communication forum linking communities and municipal departments.

Cette démarche s’inspire de l’expérience québécoise du Regroupement des Organismes Humanitaires et Communautaires pour les Mesures d’Urgence à Montréal (ROHCMUM). Les outils de préparation aux situations d’urgence développés par l’AFPCNT, associés à des ateliers collectifs, permettent aux associations réunionnaises volontaires de réaliser leur Plan de mesures d’urgence et de solidarité.

Life Skills is a series of low-threshold workshops by the Netherlands Red Cross supporting migrants, asylum seekers, and undocumented people by providing them with practical skills, boosting their self-reliance, and creating a safe and open space to discuss challenges and concerns with peers. 

The 'Emergency Awareness' Workshops aims to strengthen people and community preparedness in crises and emergencies. The workshops are designed to align preparedness activities with crises that have a high likelihood and high societal impact: hazardous materials incidents, flooding, extreme weather, blackouts, epidemics and wildfires. The workshops use an interactive, small group serious game to introduce concrete preparedness actions. Participants jointly prepare a fictional persona for an upcoming crisis and later reflect on what these actions mean for their own situation.