The compendium of flood risk mitigation measures
Aims to support UNHCR field staff, partners, and other practitioners with an overview of adequate risk mitigation measures against flooding in humanitarian settlements. Together with a Risk Mitigation Strategy GIS Tool and a Participatory Risk Mapping Methodology (all available on this site), this is a comprehensive toolbox for flood risk mitigation in refugee settlements.
Compendium of Flood Risk Mitigation
This compendium supports flood risk mitigation humanitarian settlements by presenting adequate flood risk mitigation measures alongside technical drawings and good practices.
It has been developed based on a systematic literature review alongside the consultation of flood risk and humanitarian experts. It is guided by the concept of integrated risk management, which considers the preparation for, response to, and recovery from natural hazards. The introduced measures mainly focus on the phases before a flood event, either caused by heavy rainfall (pluvial floods) or the overflow of a waterbody (riverine floods).
Combining various complementing measures is encouraged to ensure the most effective risk mitigation.
Risk Mitigation Strategy GIS Tool
The project includes an easy-to-use GIS tool (GIS is short for «Geographic Information System»). The tool aims to create an operational and practical flood risk mitigation strategy for refugee settlements, combining local and global data.
The extension (Add-In) is developed for the open-source software qGIS. It supports field staff in mapping and analyzing flood risk and vulnerable assets. Additionally, the tool helps identify mitigation measures of the compendium adapted to the context and operational priorities. This is a beta version and we are releasing a final version soon.
Local Data Collection Guide
The risk mitigation strategy GIS Tool works with global datasets and the presented mitigation measures. However, local knowledge and data can be integrated, which is necessary for increased accuracy and verification of the global data and the integrated risk management approach.
Hence, we provide guidance on collecting existing and new local information on flood hazards, vulnerabilities, and mitigation measures. The guide for local data collection also includes information on how to conduct interviews and participatory mapping workshops in the framework of this project. We are currently working on providing more support for local data collection. This document will be updated frequently.
Context
At the end of 2022, 108.4 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order. New and ongoing conflicts continue to force people to flee. At the same time, the intensity and frequency of natural hazards, including flood events, are increasing due to climate change.
Refugee settlements face a particular risk from such disruptive events due to their precarious built environment, socio-economic situation, and often remote and/or flood-exposed locations. Managing the risk of hazards becomes essential to ensure sustainable and safe settlements to protect refugees as well as their hosting communities that may be equally impacted.
Team
The compendium has been developed at the research group Spatial Development and Urban Policy (SPUR), and its Humanitarian Planning Hub at ETH Zurich. The output is based on the collaboration between UN refugee Agency (UNHCR), the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), and ETH Zurich through the Geneva Technical Hub (GTH).
Learning Section
The learning section, provides tutorials, videos and manuals to guide users through the application of the flood risk mitigation toolbox. The learning section is geared towards new users without much experience in GIS and flood risk mitigation. However, also proficient users might find this section useful.