Water-Related  Disasters  (WRD),  such  as  cyclones,  floods,  and  droughts,  account  for  90%  of  natural disasters. Since the year 2000, over 5,300 WRD have been reported, with over 325,000 fatalities and an economic loss exceeding USD 1.7 trillion globally. Floods account for approximately 54 % of all WRD [2]. Since the beginning of 2020, in South Asia alone, floods impacted over 17.5 million people, caused over 1000 deaths, and an economic loss of billions of dollars.A  global  survey  of  Flood  Early  Warning  Systems  (FEWS)  conducted  by  the  United  Nations  University Institute for Water Environment & Health (UNU-INWEH) shows that the majority of flood forecasting centers in flood-prone countries lack the ability to improve the spatial coverage of FEWS and generate historical  inundation  and  flood  risk  maps.  Developing  these  maps  at  the  national  level  using conventional techniques is a costly exercise. In Canada, for example, it is expected to take one decade and USD 350 million to update national inundation maps. Theexisting inundation and flood risk maps in  most  developing  countries  are  out-of-date  and  do  not  consider  rapid  urban  development  or  the impacts of climate change.

UNU-INWEH  has  developed  a  Historical  Flood  Mapping  tool  that  generates  inundation  maps  for significant floods in the Global South from 1984 to the present using open Earth data. We are looking for an intern to assist in developing a Flood Risk Index. FRI will provide current flood risk estimates for cities, districts, and river basins. The FRI will be built using inundation maps generated by the HFMT and open-access datasets including population density, building footprint, elevation, GDP, land use, poverty maps, and meteorological and hydrological data.

Description of Responsibilities: