Inter-institutional workshop in Nigeria: Strengthening Nigerian flood management and risk reduction through the use of Copernicus services and datasets

The Sentinels-4-African-DRR action participated in the “Inter-institutional Workshop on the Use of Space-Based Information for Flood Response and Early Warning” from 12-14 September, which was co-organized by the National Space Research and Development Agency of Nigeria (NASRDA), UN-SPIDER, and the Center of Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces (ZFL) in its role as German Regional Support Office of UN-SPIDER. At this workshop representatives of the Sentinels-4-African-DRR action presented the different services and datasets provided by Copernicus, e.g. within its Emergency Management Service. Further, the possibilities for producing flood maps based on Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data were demonstrated and explained.

In addition, the potential use of the Copernicus Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS) as a flood early warning tool for the rivers Benue and Niger was discussed in detail with a group of stakeholders from NASRDA, the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) at a dedicated meeting on 16 September.

The urgency and importance of these activities were unfortunately highlighted by the onset of a flood event, already during the workshop days. This flood turned out to become one of the strongest of the last decades, affecting vast areas along the two main rivers of Nigeria. The cooperation established during the workshop and the simulation of procedures could directly be utilized during this disaster. Further cooperation with Nigerian agencies and stakeholders is planned through training events and the development of tailored training materials as part of the Sentinels-4-African-DRR action.

You can find more information on the workshop by clicking here.