Short-Term External

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.

In November 2023, communities in Butaleja and Mbale, Uganda, dug drainage ditches and reinforced flood barriers before forecast floods, supported by the Uganda Red Cross Society.

Before the 2024/25 drought season, farmers in Mbire, Zimbabwe, helped plan and build water and livestock protection measures with Welthungerhilfe and its local partner.

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.

A global student-led programme that helps schools embed sustainability and environmental action into their curricula, campus, and communities through a structured Seven Step methodology.