Scholarly record

GIS BASED FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT – THE CASE OF LIMPOPO RIVER BASIN IN MOZAMBIQUE

A. I. Mondlane

Abstract

Mozambique is one of the most vulnerable countries to natural catastrophes in the world with second highest annual per capita death rate from disasters, 328 deaths per million, ranking only below the P.D.R of Korea; Flood disasters are responsible for half the fatalities and a third of the economical losses from natural disasters worldwide (UNDP, 2004). The Limpopo basin, one of the nine international rivers shared by Mozambique is the second large within the country and it benefits about 5\% of the national population. Paradoxically, this Basin is characterized by both drought and floods, and had registered a quite number of severe floods in the last 50 years, especially on 1955, 1967, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1981 and 2000. The 2000 floods were the most severe with water level compared to one registered only on 1848; about 800 people were killed. The water flow management within this basin is difficult given its geographical distribution among the countries that are covered. Mozambique, located at downstream side became the main victim of the floods, nevertheless the effort at regional level for water management process. The lacking of structural mitigation measures within the country also plays a major role for flood vulnerability. Different approaches on flood risk management for the Limpopo river basin have be achieved among them the stakeholder participatory approach. In this paper we will focus on the use of Information and Communication Technology on the process of flood risk management. This particular research paper aims to investigate and propose different scenarios of floods risk mitigation and management through the application of Geographical Information System. A comparative analysis of different approaches will be carried out in order to facilitate the study. The main objective of this paper is to build a scenario study that can facilitate the understanding of different outcomes in case of floods to the main stakeholders.

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