GFDRR

The problem

GFDRR is a global partnership that helps developing countries better understand and reduce their vulnerabilities to natural hazards and adapt to climate change

Working with over 400 local, national, regional, and international partners, GFDRR provides grant financing, technical assistance, training, and knowledge sharing activities to mainstream disaster and climate risk management in policies and strategies.

Managed by the World Bank, GFDRR is supported by 36 countries and 10 international organisations.

One of the tools offered by GFDRR is ThinkHazard! a web based tool that allows non-specialists to consider the impacts of disasters on development projects. It also provides guidance on how to reduce risk.

Flooding is an increasingly important hazard covered by ThinkHazard!, with the aim to provide guidance on levels of flood hazard across all territories and at numerous scales.

The solution

Fathom’s technical team combined Fathom-Global hazard layers with satellite based observations of permanent water and urban features to create a global picture of flood hazard and exposure

Bespoke spatial classification schemes were then developed using quantitative methods that used the hazard data to classify government administrative areas into easily understood hazard classes globally.

The results

The ThinkHazard! platform has a new and improved set of global flood hazard layers for both fluvial (riverine) and urban (riverine and extreme rainfall) flooding

These layers allow users to quickly identify whether or not flooding is likely to pose an operational challenge during the early stages of disaster response or project planning.

Quote Fathom delivered high-quality and timely analyses to improve the global flood hazard classification in ThinkHazard!, and helped make the data available for disaster risk management activities in developing countries.