“Rofaqa’a Al Nahr” project for flood management: Early Warning and Early Actions

Ongoing Project (Till 2025)

On June 9^th, 2021, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) signed a grant agreement with Solidarités International (SI) for a disaster risk management project that would target flood risks in Akkar (Ostouane River Basin) and Beqaa (Ostouane River Basin), two regions particularly exposed to flooding. The project management is entrusted to the National Council for Scientific Research of Lebanon (CNRS-L & Solidarités International (SI) in consortium with the Lebanese Red Cross (LRC), the French Red Cross, and the Disaster Risk Management Unit (DRM-U), and intends to prevent and reduce the risk of floods, prepare disaster response and strengthen the capacities of Lebanese frontline actors. The program specifically aims to set up an Integrated Flood Risk Management model at the river basin level offering a comprehensive approach to address the flood risk from community to institutional levels, including both structural and non-structural interventions.  The approach is in line with the Lebanese water law (The Official Gazette – No. 41 – 22-10-2020, Law No. 192) to guarantee a sustainable management of the Lebanese State’s natural water resources. Hence, the intervention seeks to support an anticipatory approach with a strong Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) component. Further, the early warning protocol addressing the impacts of floods in the two river basins communities will serve as a pilot for a replicable model and will provide inputs for the national Early Warning System (EWS) platform.

The main objective of the work is to assess the flood hazard and risk over the Ghzayel and Ostouane watersheds and to assess exposures and vulnerability along the flood plains to deduce a flood risk management plan taking into consideration the key stakeholder capacities through the compilation of existing relevant data and extensive field compilation and modeling using available tools. Within this context, the National Council for scientific research –Center for Remote Sensing (CNRS-RS) leads the Flood Risk Assessment and Mapping for Ghzayel and Ostouane watersheds.