October 2025 – September 2027
Millions of people worldwide are affected by river floods each year. Early warning and early action systems based on forecasts help reduce suffering, fatalities, and damage for affected communities. To facilitate early action, humanitarian organisations have adopted anticipatory action frameworks that link pre-agreed activities and their funding with forecasted peak river flow thresholds. However, the scale of humanitarian needs is primarily determined by flood impacts. The goal of this project is to move beyond streamflow thresholds alone to additionally provide impact forecasts, such as people and critical infrastructure that may be threatened. This can help improve anticipatory actions taken by humanitarian organisations, national and local governments, and affected people.
ETH PI: Dr. Jamie McCaughey
Humanitarian partner: Marc van den Homberg, Aklilu Teklesadik, (510 data and digital initiative, The Netherlands Red Cross) and Leonardo Milano (UN OCHA)
