Authors Accepted Manuscript

Flooding in African cities, scales of causes,

teleconnections, risks, vulnerability and impacts

Ian Douglas

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.09.024
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To appear in: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
Cite this article as: Ian Douglas, Flooding in African cities, scales of causes,
teleconnections, risks, vulnerability and impacts, International Journal of
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Flooding in African cities, scales of causes, teleconnections, risks, vulnerability
and impacts.

Ian Douglas

School of Environment, Education and Development,

University of Manchester,
Manchester,
M13 9PL,
UK

ian.douglas@manchester.ac.uk

1
Abstract
Understanding what can be done about flooding involves examining how everyday
urban activities exacerbate flood risks, and how to reduce the inequitable exposure to
flood risks at all scales from the individual household to national governments and
international river basin management. Those who change the landscape in ways that
make flooding worse are not usually those who suffer the consequences of such
changes. Understanding of the inter-relations between both geophysical processes and
human drivers and human victims at multiple scales is required. Teleconnections mean
that the global, the rural and the urban all affect one another. Across Africa, as in other
continents, flooding may arise locally within built-up areas from debris blocking
streams and from overflowing sewers. Nevertheless, many cities are flooded by major
rivers that carry extreme flows of water from surrounding regions and even distant
mountains. The causes and impacts of floods, human vulnerability, possibilities of risk
reduction and political and management responsibilities vary from the household and
community levels up to sub-continental hydrologic systems and the global climate
system. Co-ordinated action must take account of the differing scales of flood problems
ranging from those arising from highly localised thunderstorms to the huge flood flows
on major rivers produced by tropical cyclones. Urban flood management needs local,
regional or national action at appropriate scales, with communities dealing with
problems entirely with their areas, local governments acting on issues that are totally
within their boundaries and national governments or international river basin
organizations dealing with problems across many administrations.

1. Introduction
Flooding may occur many times a month in parts of many African cities, usually through

rainfall that overflows from channels, or even does not reach defined channels. Heavy

rain may also cause groundwater levels to rise to the surface, thus releasing subsurface

water that begins to flood normally dry valley floors. Settlements on sea or lake shores

are sometimes flooded by extremely high tides, storm surges or tsunamis.

Several different types of flooding can affect African cities: pluvial flooding from

torrential rain that reaches the ground more quickly than it can infiltrate or flow away

downslope; groundwater flooding where the normally subsurface water table rises to

the ground surface and water emerges into basements and ground-level rooms in

2
buildings; flooding from overflowing drains and channels that have insufficient capacity

to evacuate all the water which flows into them; flooding from major rivers that have

brought huge volumes of water from areas, maybe many tens, or even hundreds, of

kilometres upstream; or shoreline inundation from large lakes or seas during unusual

storm surges or seismic wave events.

Although the water is in immediate cause of inundation, the water flows are produced

by geophysical events, usually rain or shoreline waves. However, the actual height and

extent of any given flood is determined by the nature of the ground surface, the

dimensions of the channels or coasts along which flood flows develop and by local

obstructions to water movement. Such ground conditions are the products of many

different human actions that change the land cover, alter the ability of water to infiltrate

and impede the flow of water along channels. Collectively such actions can be termed

the human dimensions of flooding (Table 1).

Geophysical factors Human dimensions

Global scale Tropical cyclones Greenhouse gas emissions and

climate change
El Nio La Nina

Regional Scale Regional rainfalls River regulation,

deforestation, land
Land use and river channel degradation
change
Impervious surfaces
River siltation

City-wide Scale Rapid surface runoff Modified channels

Narrowed floodplains Artificial drainage

Neighbourhood scale Poor drainage Local debris blocking streams

3
 Thunderstorm flooding and culverts

Sewer overflows Badly sited dwellings

Household scale Water in around house Impacts of water diversion

elsewhere
Silt deposition
Lack of drain cleaning
Rapid onset of flooding

Table 1 Geophysical factors and human activities affecting flooding at different scales

In Africa, most rural settlements in riverine or coastal wetlands are at risk of flooding.

In built-up urban areas, inadequate drainage puts thousands at risk of flooding from

frequent short duration, but high intensity, thunderstorm rains. For those whose homes

are effected every time it rains, such flash floods are an intolerable risk that reinforces

impoverishment, insecurity and ill-health. Vulnerability in the face of these flood risks is

closely related to the ability to cope. Poor people are usually far more vulnerable to

floods and their impacts than those who have more financial resources. The impacts of

flooding on urban people stem from both local damage to property, housing, transport,

urban service access and urban agriculture, and indirect effects of flooding in rural areas

through disruption of food supplies and the movement of raw materials and goods. Events at

one scale have impacts at other scales.

These complex impacts stem from multiple causes operating at varying scales in different

locations. Most urban social and environmental issues, including flooding, are

interconnected. Their drivers and effects cross many time and space scales [1]. Such

interdependent connections are now frequently termed teleconnections [2]. The concept of

teleconnections is widely used in meteorology and climate change discussions to describe

4
spatially and temporally large-scale anomalies that influence the variability of the

atmospheric circulation [3] [4] and thus such terrestrial phenomena as wildfires [5].

Increasingly, hydrologists are investigating how rainfall and river flows in Africa, for

example on the Nile [6], Limpopo [7], Niger and Volta [8], are teleconnected to the intensity

of the El Nino Southern Oscillation index.

These well-established climatic teleconnections are paralleled by teleconnections associated

with land use and land cover changes, including those driven by mining, forestry, agriculture

and urbanisation. Such changes, perhaps hundreds of miles away from a particular city, can

have many impacts on urban households, enterprises, infrastructure and public facilities. The

examination of urban teleconnections can help to establish the effects of land use and land

cover changes in one part of a river basin on water availability for irrigation or urban use, or

on river channel capacity for flood waters, in another area further downstream.

People now discuss economic and societal teleconnections which are seen as analogous to

physical teleconnections, but are focused on the human-created linkages via people,

structures, institutions and processes [9]. These are readily seen in terms of urban food

supplies through the impact of loss of crops during floods and droughts in distant regions on

the availability and price of individual foodstuffs in town and cities. They are also evident

when major manufacturing facilities are put out of action by floods, fires, or earthquakes. In

many instances global markets are affected, as well as employment not only in the affected

locality but also in the places from which the enterprise drew components and raw materials

[10]. Looking at teleconnections thus helps in understanding the multi-layered, multi-factor

character of flood problems at any particular locality, particularly of the way actions by one

part of society in one area can adversely affect and entirely different group in another area.

Teleconnections are important (Fig. 1)

5
Figure 1. Teleconnections related to flooding between two areas, showing the links between
flood-related risks and other socio-economic risks that influence the impact of floods on
communities; examples of the types of process, structures and substances involved in
teleconnections; and the existing and possible future adaptation issues that will alter flood
risks and affect the teleconnections. The areas could be at any scale, from the effects of
atmospheric circulations on monsoons and tropical cyclones to the impacts of the
development of a new subdivision on an urban stream a few kilometres upstream of an
existing low-lying settlement already prone to flooding. (In part based on a figure in Moser
and Hart, 2015 [9]).

To improve readiness to cope with future flooding, the goal of this paper is to identify

what actions can be taken at different scales to contribute to an integrated scheme of

flood hazard reduction and increased resilience to future flooding that improves equity

and security for people in urban settlements.

6
 2. Present understanding of the dimensions of flooding in African cities

African cities face major challenges associated with globalisation, social, economic and

political change and environmental risks [11]. Many low-income urban people in Africa are

exposed to health risks resulting from poor housing, water and sanitation; livelihood risks

from insecure employment and work-place hazards; the impacts of natural disasters that

disproportionately affect informal settlements; and lack of government attention to their

insecurity and unequal treatment [11]. For people in low-lying, crowded housing, frequent

localised nuisance flooding is often part of daily life, causing major disruptions for traffic

in most African cities, affecting both local residents and commuters from other parts of

the city. In poorer settlements, such as the 12 Mile settlement, Lagos, flash flooding can

submerge entire streets causing traffic jams on main roads [12]. In Benin City [13] and

Accra heavy rains hamper economic activities, flooding roads, inundating

telecommunication systems, and causing factories to shut-down temporarily [14]. In

Kampala, annual flooding from extreme convective storm rainfalls with an average

duration of two hours or more increased from five events in 1993 to ten in 2014 [15].

Similar trends of more frequent extreme events have occurred elsewhere.

2.1 Household and community coping strategies

People cope with such local floods at the household and community level through well-

established loss minimisation and property protection strategies. Some urban householders

have raised houses on stilts and obtained flood insurance [15]. In Kampala wetland areas,

for example, 80 % of surveyed flood-affected householders adapted by constructing

flood barriers and over 60 % built resilient structures, used soil to raise ground levels,

or placed valuables above the floor [16]. However, such individual householder actions
7
are seldom co-ordinated. Protection of one dwelling may lead to deeper flooding of a

neighbouring property. In Kampala [16], Dar-es-Salaam [17] and Nairobi [18], such

household-level adaptations have been seen as desperate, isolated efforts towards

preparedness, response and recovery [16].

Community level action is often difficult. In the multi-ethnic, tenant- dominated urban

poor communities of peripheral informal settlements, community cohesion and a sense

of ownership are often lacking. Social resilience is weak, communities seldom being able

to mobilise their own resources quickly and effectively. The social capacity to

anticipate, mitigate, adapt to, and recover from flooding is thus far lower than it could

be [19].

People in long-established settlements have often developed stronger community

cohesion and action. Sometimes external civil society organisations have prompted

flood mitigation work, but such organisations have criticised with requests that

communities be allowed to improve their own lives and environment in their own ways

[20].

2.2 Municipal actions to alleviate flooding

Municipal action in informal settlements is often weak, sometimes because self-built

dwellings are treated as illegal occupation of land which can best be dealt with by

removing people to other sites. In other cases, for example in Old Fadama, Accra,

political influence plays a major role [21], with both municipal and national efforts to

relocate people being unacceptable to powerful local politicians [22].

Municipal flood mitigation, where it exists, is mainly concerned with structural works to

contain and evacuate flood water quickly. Often such works defend prestigious city centre

8
buildings, pushing floodwater downstream more quickly and at greater depths. Below the

flood walls, excess water simply spreads out onto the floodplain, inundating cropland and

settlements to greater extents than previously. Such problem shifting, rather than problem

reduction or alleviation, usually produces environmental injustice where deprived

communities suffer and more affluent groups benefit [23]. For example, in Lagos, flood

prevention and urban development schemes since 1990 have led to much demolition and

eviction in the Makoko and Badia settlements [24]. State governments often adopt slum

clearance as their preferred flood prevention strategy), rather than developing multi-faceted,

co-operative strategies with municipal authorities and local communities.

2.3 River basin level flood mitigation strategies

The main goal of river basin management is usually to ensure reasonably equitable shares of

water supplies for agriculture; urban activities; hydropower generation; and instream

ecological and fishery benefits. Dealing with flooding that connects rivers, riparian areas,

and floodplains, shifting organisms, debris, sediments, pollutants and dissolved substances, is

often a secondary concern. In Europe getting all riparian states to implement integrated land

and water planning to mitigate flooding is proving difficult. In Africa, the situation is even

more complex as international river basin management is poorly developed.

In Africa, in 1991, Scudder [25] asked why flooding was being neglected in African

development planning. Each major African international river basin (Fig. 2) has an

organisation embracing all the riparian states that is usually primarily concerned with the

equitable sharing of a basins water resources between those states. Such sharing may be

9
problematic where upstream states receive most of the rainfall and downstream states rely on

the river for most, if not all their urban and agricultural water supplies.

In the worlds arid and semiarid zones, including much of Africa, mountains are often the

source of 50 to 90 per cent of the water supplies sustaining rural and urban life. The

highlands of East Africa feed the Nile, while those of Guinea supply the upper Niger and the

Drakensberg send water to the Orange. Such humid mountain areas have often been

described as the water towers of the continents (Fig.2). Globally, the 50 per cent of the

land occupied by mountains supplies essential or a major part of the water needed by

downstream areas [26]. Changes to the way water is retained in the mountains affect events

downstream. Many of the high mountain glaciers and long-lasting snowpacks are retreating

or have melted. Deforestation and highland agriculture may reduce soil moisture levels.

Thus, both climate and local land use and land cover changes in the water tower areas are

altering river regimes, sediment volumes, and flood magnitudes and frequencies [27],

producing significant teleconnections between upland change and lowland community

vulnerability to both water shortages and floods.

In seasonally wet areas of tropical Africa, the annual flooding of riparian wetlands supports

both vast biodiversity and many human activities such as fisheries, floodplain recession

agriculture, and tourism. Nearly 20 million people, over half the total population of the

Zambezi basin, live in or around its wetlands [28]. Sustaining such wetland populations and

their agricultural productivity requires integrated water resources management at the river

basin scale.

10
Fig. 2 Africas major river basins and upland water towers.

The Nile is the clear-cut case of equity issues, where Egypt and Sudan have opposed a new

basin management framework that asks them to share more of the water with upstream states

[29]. Sudan has to cooperate with upstream states, notably Ethiopia, to solve siltation, water

quality and seasonal flooding problems [30]. Climate change demands flexible water

allocation, biodiversity, water quality protection, flood control and infrastructure maintenance

[31].

11
Appropriate soil conservation and vegetation management could reduce sediment-laden

stormwater discharges, as demonstrated in the Congo basin around the Lukaya River basin

immediately south of Kinshasa [32]. However, floodbank (leve) construction may produce a

false sense of security, as occurred in Niger [33] where in the 1970-90 dry years people

moved on to floodplain areas they had previously avoided, only to find that much wetter

conditions after 1990 produced serious flooding [34]. Future flood risk modelling should

include land-use change, climatic uncertainty, population density and vulnerability [35].

River basin managers are normally responsible for warning riparian urban areas of oncoming

floods. While several such systems exist in Africa, most African meteorological and

hydrological institutions accept that the work of river basin managers would be improved by

complementary flood forecasting and early warning systems. However, often the expertise

for flood forecasting and flood warning dissemination is lacking [36].

3. Causes of flooding in tropical African cities

Understanding what can be done about flooding involves examining how everyday

urban activities exacerbate flood risks, and how to reduce the inequitable exposure to

flood risks at all scales from the individual household to national governments and

international river basin management. Those who make flooding worse by changing the

landscape do not usually suffer the consequences of such changes. Comprehending the

inter-relations between both geophysical processes and human drivers and human

victims at multiple scales is required (Table 1).

3.1. Localised flooding within the city. Pluvial flooding where stormwater runoff

does not enter stream channels or flooding from small streams that have fully urbanized

12
catchments, are caused by combinations of geophysical events and human activities. Paved

and roofed surfaces allow almost all the rain that falls of them to runoff over the surface, a

runoff coefficient of 0.95 (i.e. 95% of the rain flows over the surface to rivers) occurring on

experimental asphalt surfaces. The coefficient increases as rainfall intensity and volume

increase. With an average rainfall intensity of over 50 mm hr-1 for four hours or more, runoff

coefficients on paved surfaces would be likely to exceed 0.95 [37], compared to around 0.25

in a forest.

Urban stream catchments, if not rigorously maintained, become encumbered by

debris, partially blocked by bridge abutments and often constrained by embankments or

concrete walls, leaving insufficient room for floodwaters causing stormwater to spill into

surrounding built-up areas [37]. Local human actions greatly increase the flood hazard in

such situations.

3.2. Flooding along major rivers flowing through cities. Rural land uses and

extractive industries, such as mining and quarrying, upstream of urban areas affect the flood

behaviour of the urban reaches of rivers. Movement of material from the countryside and

from other parts of a city, landfilling, waste dumping and construction may greatly decrease

channel capacities along African urban rivers [38]. Bridges, pipelines and culverts may leave

in sufficient space for floodwater. Urban embankments or levees often result in higher

velocity flows that create problems in suburban and peri-urban areas further downstream.

3.2 Geophysical factors causing variations in flooding from similar rainfalls

13
3.2.1. Antecedent conditions Flooding is also greatly affected by events that have

affected the ground conditions in the days and weeks preceding a major rain event or

shoreline storm surge. These antecedent conditions cause wide variations in the amount

of a given rainfall that runs off rapidly into rivers or how far a storm surge travels inland.

If groundwater levels are high and soil moisture is at maximum capacity, even moderate

amounts of rain can generate a large flood (Fig. 3). However, the development of a very

dry, crusted soil after a prolonged period without rain, or after a wildfire associated

with severe drought conditions, can also rapidly convert rainfall to runoff (because the

runoff coefficient is higher), resulting in a flash flood.

Figure 3. Antecedent conditions (catchment wetness) influence the proportion of rainfall

flowing to rivers and thus the potential for flooding (After Britton et al., 1993 [39])

3.2.2 Overlapping events

Particularly severe flooding may arise from the teleconnection of two or more extreme

events, such as exceptional rainfall in the headwaters of a major river that creates a

14
flood which reaches the coastal region just as a powerful cyclone adds heavy prolonged

rain to the already overflowing river: a geophysical event in one area having severe

consequences elsewhere. Combinations of high tides and heavy rain often affect coastal

cities, as in Lagos on July 10, 2011 when drainage channels and coastal defences were

overwhelmed and over one hundred people died, thousands were displaced and property

losses of about $US 320 million occurred [40].

In February 2007 in Mozambique heavy rains upstream caused the Zambezi river to begin to

flood and evacuation of people from floodplain areas was started. Some 130.000 people

displaced and another 122,000 were affected. On 22 February, Cyclone Favio crossed the

coast 440 km south of the Zambezi delta causing widespread rain over already saturated areas

as well as wind damage to coastal settlements. Approximately 134,000 people suffered from

this second natural disaster with key infrastructure and essential services damaged and crops

destroyed [41].

3.3 Magnitude and Frequency concepts

Flooding affects small areas for short periods of time in countless places daily, but major

river basin flooding of the scale that affected people along the Limpopo River in

Mozambique in 2000 and along the Zambezi in 2008 may only occur once in 25 or 30 years.

Damage and disruption of national life from a single event of this magnitude has a far greater

effect on regional and national economies than from the frequent localised, small-scale

events. Psychologically however, the misery of being likely to be flooded every time it rains

is a different dimension of the flood problem. In flood mitigation and adaptation, strategies

the whole range of flood events have to be considered and suitable measures for each scale of

magnitude and frequency have to be developed. The different scales of floods and associated

15
risk in terms of their magnitudes and frequencies of occurrence, and the intensity, depth,

duration and spatial extent of the rain event (Table 2) and the resultant river discharges along

with the antecedent conditions need to be taken into account.

Intensity, depth, area, duration, frequency concepts

Intensity (mm per unit time) usually mm hr-1 or max 15 minute
Depth mm per day at a point
Area km2 over which rain fell
Duration Time (hours or minutes for which rain fell)
Frequency How often a particular size of event occurs (probability e.g. 1 in 100 years)

Table 2. Magnitude and frequency concepts

4 Risks and vulnerability

Although readily available free, global mapping data permits large scale flood risk estimation

everywhere, uncertainty in flood protection levels affects the reliability of such assessments

[42]. National flood maps, where available, are used in different ways, from raising

inhabitants awareness to development control and planning, planning flood defence

expenditure, or adaptation to climate change [42].

Global remote sensing data has been used successfully at the river basin scale in parts of the

Lake Victoria catchment, to implement hydrologic models that can predict the spatial extents

of floods [43]. However, regional flood risk assessment involves considering the

characteristics of channels, flood protection systems and their operation during events. At

present, in Africa most flood hazard mapping relies on digital elevation models that

16
determine where channels would exist in the topography but do not consider the character of

the channel and the adjacent floodplain [44].

Local risk assessment in urban areas has to take account of specific locations, buildings and

human responses, especially where water is likely to when channels, culverts or sewers

overflow. Participatory mapping using local knowledge, as carried out in Kibera, Nairobi

(www.mapkibera.org), can identify which people need evacuation during a major flood.

Mapping the space for water in built-up and cultivated parts of floodplains helps to decide

where interventions are needed [19]. Community involvement both informs planners and

hydraulic engineers and raises local peoples awareness of how activities encumber

stormwater runoff pathways and aggravate local flooding. Nevertheless, local mapping has to

be integrated into wider mapping of flood risk areas and drainage routes for the whole urban

area. Such connections are particularly important for assessing changes in risk from

development on slopes further upstream and the consequent storm drain flows and channel

enlargement. Good mapping should also identify areas suitable for storm water detention

basins and other elements of sustainable urban drainage [45]. A well-developed link between

the global, river basin and urban areas scales would permit rapid flood risk, hazard, exposure

and vulnerability assessments to help local policy makers in localities with little data [42].

The diversity and effectiveness of urban governance (which include actions concerning

institutional vulnerability) and the condition of the local environment (physical vulnerability)

greatly affect how urban people are affected by and cope with geophysical events. In most

tropical African cites, large households, who are tenants, have a low level of education, and

depend on low, erratic incomes, are most vulnerable to flooding [46].

17
5. Impacts

The cumulative impacts of flooding weaken households, communities, whole cites and

national economies. Published estimates may be inaccurate, many impacts going unrecorded,

but two examples may help to give a broad idea of possible magnitudes of disruption of

human life and economic losses. In the Sahel of Niger 79 damaging rainfall and flood events

in 47 communities between 1989 and 2004 destroyed 5,580 houses, killed 18, left 27,289

homeless, and caused over US$4 million worth of damage [47]). Individual major events can

be more damaging: the 2015 Malawi floods displaced 230,000 people, over 200 were

reported missing, and inundated 64,000 ha of land (https://www.theguardian.com/global-

development/2015/feb/10/malawi-floods-devastation-far-worse-than-first-thought).

Disruption of economic activities including agriculture and tourism can be extensive [48]. In

parts of Nigeria, floods in 2012 caused food prices to rise and reduced crude oil production

by 500,000 barrels per day [49]. Farmers are severely affected by both floods and droughts,

and their capacity to cope and adapt is limited. Crop failures translate almost directly into

severe food insecurity, for both rural and urban communities [50]. Flooding damages road

surfaces, increasing maintenance costs, thus reducing funds available for building new roads

[51]. This in turn means higher transport costs because journeys on poor roads take longer,

so increasing the costs of food and materials delivered to urban areas, particularly affecting

poor communities.

The effects of pluvial flooding at the household and community level are well-known, but the

disruption has far-reaching impacts on employment, education, health and safety. Local

stream flooding, particularly at inadequate culverts and bridges disrupts traffic and thus has

impacts far away from where the actual flood occurs.

18
6.Adaptation

6.1 Household and community level actions

Household level adaptation is individualistic and usually unintegrated across a

neighbourhood. Sometimes groups of householders work together to improve their own

surroundings, especially in terms of raising ground around dwellings and building protective

barriers.

Community-level action to improve drainage in informal settlements has been successful in

several places such as Kibera [19] and Mathare [52] in Nairobi. Community adaptive

capacity is increased by strong social networks; high participation in community

organizations; support from local civil society and state institutions; and awareness of flood

threats. Training in flood response methods; enhancing coping capacities; and targeting the

most vulnerable communities and environments aid impact reduction and strengthen

adaptation [53].

6.2 Municipal scale actions

As the locus of adaptation planning, funding and decision-making, the readiness of city

governments to enhance resilience and create inclusive cities is a key factor in adapting to

floods. Almost every major tropical African city has some kind of instrument for evaluating

damage and mapping risk and needs, and two-thirds of cities have planning tools [54].

Although they have to follow institutional, regulatory and legal frameworks, municipal

authorities should use local and scientific knowledge that can support decision-making on

flood adaptation [55]. Often, good urban adaptation practices at the community level are

unknown to people in other neighbourhoods and are not integrated with other actions.

19
Overall, for a more holistic and innovative approach to planning adaptation is needed to

reduce, rather than increase, loss and damage [51].

Where independent, unintegrated measures are undertaken, maladaptive practices may occur.

Maladaptation refers to adaptation measures that increase vulnerability rather than reducing

it. In informal settlements, this easily occurs when measures to protect dwellings accelerate

the flow of stormwater into other homes and lead to higher water levels elsewhere. Storm

drains in new subdivisions can lead to communities further downslope being flooded more

frequently.

Most municipal authorities generally lack funds to undertake all desired flood mitigation

works. Collecting all local taxes properly requires innovation, such as that of the Kampala

Capital City Authority using mobile phones as part of a more efficient tax-collection system,

with some money for flood control works [56].

Some urban authorities have benefitted from international assistance. A partnership in

Burkina-Faso between the Bobo-Dioulasso Municipal Unit for the Management of Climate

Change and UN Habitats Cities and Climate Change Initiative shows how urban agriculture

and green infrastructure can be used to lessen the risk of flooding [57]. Not all projects may

be multifunctional. The World Bank Supported Nairobi River Project is essentially to

improve sanitation, but sees flood alleviation as a secondary concern, noting that provision

was made for financing a tree planting program along the riparian zone to prevent

encroachment, help preserve the riparian zone, and sequester carbon. Wastewater

infrastructure was to be sited in areas less prone to flooding and river flow monitoring would

20
help in predicting floods [58]. However, this gradual improvement does not appear to be

linked to drainage improvements by NGOs and others within informal settlements.

6.3 Teleconnections in flood adaptation: actions at the appropriate scale

The dependence of urban people on food from other areas implies that food security

considerations should be made explicit in the adaptation of the agriculture, forestry and

fisheries sectors to flooding in the face of climate change. This requires raising awareness of

policy-makers, providing incentives and promoting the most resilient food production

systems.

Urban flood adaptation needs local, regional or national action at appropriate scales, with

communities dealing with problems entirely with their areas, local governments acting on

issues that are totally within their boundaries and national governments or international river

basin organizations dealing with problems across many administrations (Fig 4). Each level of

responsibility would undertake and maintain a particular range of flood mitigation work (Fig

5)

21
Figure 4 Responsibilities for flood mitigation works at different scales

Figure 5 Flood mitigation actions at different scales

22
Government agencies are slowly recognising the importance of community organizations and

networks in preparedness and emergency response. Such collaborative actions should not

become an excuse to off-load public responsibilities. National and municipal governments

should work together to deliver flood mitigation and adaptation through local, regional or

national action at appropriate scales, with communities dealing with problems entirely with

their areas. Local governments will act on issues arising totally within their boundaries,

while national governments or international river basin organizations deal with problems

across many administrations.

Because flooding elsewhere affects urban life in terms of food security, transport links and

energy and water supplies, further regional and national integrated for resilience planning is

needed. In large river basins flooding in sensitive agricultural areas can led to food shortages

and price rises that greatly affect the urban poor. After major floods, there is often initially a

regional dramatic rise in the rates of malnutrition which subsequently declines as a result of

short term and long-term food relief measures. Lessons may be learnt from places like Dhaka,

Bangladesh where emergency food supplies are kept to prevent malnutrition during major

flood events [59].

7. Conclusions

Good practice examples abound in terms of local action and individual flood alleviation

procedures. Some municipal plans have multifunctional goals but others may be dominantly

single purpose. Too much academic research concentrates on simple procedures such as

digital elevation models for flood risk assessment and questionnaire surveys of flood losses

and flood adaptation actions. Few examine what specific factors cause individual flood event

at particular localities. Not many use participatory field investigations to inform stormwater

23
drainage improvements and to involve people in working together to clear local channels and

reduce their own vulnerability.

Wider scale collaboration is bedeviled by issues of how to get trust and co-operation between

sectors of urban society: how to overcome decades of social division and inequality. Mistrust,

such as the suspicion of local government by national governments and the suspicion of

NGOs by most African governments, makes effective working at different scales within any

city difficult. A key issue will always be that of getting people who are highly concerned

about the immediate livelihood and safety issues around their own homes and businesses to

see the bigger picture and to fit their flood mitigation and adaptation into the wider context.

The notions of teleconnections of geophysical and human systems at scales from the

household to the global are a key part of understanding and managing urban flood crises.

From climate change to household waste management, human actions aggravate the impacts

of geophysical events. The recognition that the victims of those impacts are usually not the

perpetrators of the aggravating actions is important for all sectors of society. However, it is

perhaps important to acknowledge that the global middle class which consumes a

disproportionate part of the worlds resources, probably contributes much more to the causes

and impacts of flooding than the poor, who are more likely to be the victims of flooding.

Acknowledgements

I thank colleagues at the UrbanARK conference in Malawi in February 2016 for their

discussions and suggestions on themes related to this paper; Arabella Fraser and an unknown

referee for their comments on drafts of the paper; colleagues from Action Aid and their urban

networks for discussions on urban responses to flooding in tropical African cities; Asenath

Omwega for introducing me to Nairobi in 1992 and subsequent involvement in flooding

24
issues in Africa; and all those who have helped me with flooding projects in Australia,

Malaysia and the UK since 1966. I am most grateful for funding to support work on flooding

in Africa received from the Commonwealth Geographical Bureau in 1992; an International

Council for Science (ICSU) grant to the Scientific Committee on Problems of the

Environment (SCOPE) project on peri-urban environmental change; and Action Aids

support for work on urban poverty and climate change.

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