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Tropentag, September 18 - 20, 2019 in Kassel
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Implementing Climate-Sensitive Adaptation Strategies to Reduce Flood Risk in the Transboundary Lower Mono River Catchment in Togo and Benin – The Project CLIMAFRI
Yvonne Walz1, Kouami Kokou2,4, Julien Adounkpe3,4, Moumini Savadogo4, Aymar Bossa4, Akpamou Kokouvi Gbétey5, Martin Pépin Aina6,3, Mariele Evers7, Adrian Almoradie7, Rholan Houngue7, Sophie Thiam8, Sarah Verleysdonk8, Gesine Schiewer9, Victor Kpokpoya9, Kaj Lippert10, Gernot Belger10, Michael Hagenlocher1, Yannick Schillinger1, Simon Wagner1, Lorina Schudel1, Zita Sebesvari1
1United Nations University, Inst. for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Germany
2University of Lomé, Togo
3University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin
4West African Sci. Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL), Burkina Faso
5Ministry of Environment, Sustainable Development and Nature Protection, Togo
6Ministry of Living Environment and Sustainable Development, Benin
7University of Bonn, Dept. of Hydrology and Water Resource Management, Germany
8University of Bonn, Centre for Development Research (ZEF), Germany
9University of Bayreuth, Chair of Intercultural German Studies, Germany
10Björnsen Consulting Engineers, Germany
Abstract
Floods have affected more people than any other type of disaster in the 21st century (CRED. Natural Disasters 2018. https://emdat.be/sites/default/files/adsr_2018.pdf). Many countries in West Africa suffer severely from the destructive violence of floods caused by heavy rainfall events, which are expected to increase in frequency and severity with projections of climate change. In the transboundary Mono River Basin of Togo and Benin, floods occur with very high frequency causing deaths and losses of existential livelihoods of the local people. The combination of frequent flood events together with the overuse of natural resources and a lack of information and knowledge about the interrelationships, demonstrate the great need for intervention in this area, which was communicated by African partners from science and national government and led to the joint development of the CLIMAFRI project presented here.
The German-African inter- and transdisciplinary CLIMAFRI project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under the CLIENT II program. The project will co-develop adaptation strategies for sustainable management of water and natural resources to reduce current and future flood risk considering scenarios of climate change in the transboundary Lower Mono river catchment of Togo and Benin. Another scientific and technical objective is to collaboratively establish a River Basin Information System through the integration of science-based data with information and knowledge from local stakeholders and communities. To achieve the sustainable implementation of the River Basin Information System, it is a key objective of CLIMAFRI to train professional staff on multiple scientific and technical aspects during the process of establishing the information system and to embed the information system within the responsible authority(ies) in the transboundary region.
Keywords: Adaptation, climate change, flood risk, information system, West Africa
Contact Address: Yvonne Walz, United Nations University, Inst. for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany, e-mail: walz
ehs.unu.edu
