Assessing Flood and Drought Risks in Afghanistan Using Satellite Data
Together with the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations (FCAS) team, the GDA’s Climate Resilience Consortium have developed a platform that utilises Earth observation data to assess flood and drought risks in Afghanistan, supporting resilience and informed decision-making in fragile areas.
Description
The GDA’s Climate Resilience Consortium collaborated with the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations (FCAS) team to develop geospatial products and a new platform for assessing flood and drought risks in Afghanistan at the local, regional, and national levels. This activity contributes to FCAS’s project, ‘Enhancing Differentiated Approaches for Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations in ADB Operations,’ and allows the FCAS team and other authorised users to access all generated data to check the status of local infrastructure, assess flood and drought risks, and optimize on-site interventions.
Afghanistan is very vulnerability to flooding as its population is concentrated along its main rivers. It is also very susceptible to droughts, which have severely impacted food security due to water scarcity. Using Earth observation data to assess these risks is particularly important to the FCAS team, as accessing remote and occasionally dangerous areas of the country is often hindered by physical, political and security constraints. The platform provides the FCAS team with the ability to access recent satellite imagery and analyse potential flood or drought risks in specific areas or regions. By integrating satellite-based datasets on precipitation, soil moisture, flood risk maps, and drought indicators, the platform offers decision-makers easy access to historical and future-oriented intelligence on flood and drought risks.
You can read more about this Case Study here: Satellite-Based Platform Enhances Hydrological Extremes Risk Assessment in Afghanistan