Flood project stakeholder workshop to take place in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Climateprediction.net’s Professor David Wallom and Dr Sarah Sparrow are visiting Dhaka, Bangladesh, this March for a stakeholder workshop around the REBuILD project (Risk Evaluation of Brahmaputra Inundations for Loss and Damage).

During this stakeholder workshop, participants will share their opinions and insights on how extreme event risk assessments could be further developed for comprehensive risk management, aiding Bangladesh policymakers in developing appropriate adaptation strategies for achieving Sustainable Development Goals.

Bangladesh is listed as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change. It has one of the largest population densities in the world, resulting in high pressure on land and water resources. When an extreme weather event such as flooding occurs, millions of people are displaced and both freshwater supply and agricultural production are affected.

Understanding the impact of anthropogenic climate change and developing services to support government programmes such as the “Loss and Damage in Vulnerable Countries Initiative” within the country would be greatly beneficial.

The REBuILD project is a pilot study funded under the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) involving a collaboration of researchers from the University of Oxford and Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

Using the unique computing infrastructure of climateprediction.net (CPDN), quantitative risk assessments are being carried out of the potential impacts of the Brahmaputra flooding during summer 2017.

Professor Wallom will open the workshop with an introduction to the climateprediction.net programme and its relevance to the REBuILD project. Dr Sparrow will present a case study of the analysis of the 2017 floods along with Khaled Mohammed of IWFM, who has been visiting the University to collaborate with Oxford researchers on the project over the past couple of months.

There will also be interactive sessions for all participants on the Brahmaputra Floods policy decisions and Exploring drivers and best practice in dealing with floods.