Climate Change Adaptation Technologies for Water

A practitioner’s guide to adaptation technologies for increased

water sector resilience
WATER ADAPTATION TECHNOLOGY BRIEF

Early warning systems for floods

Challenge: Disaster preparedness Adaptation response: Early warning

Description
Early warning systems are an important component of disaster risk management strategies. In contrast
to flood forecasting systems, which assess flood risk, the main purpose of early warning systems is to
issue warnings when a flood is imminent or already occurring. Early warning systems for floods comprise
four inter-related elements: 1) assessments and knowledge of flood risks in the area, 2) local hazard
monitoring (forecasts) and warning service, 3) flood risk dissemination and communication service, and
4) community response capabilities. This multifunctional system improves community preparedness for
extreme weather events such as floods, in terms of both warning and increasing understanding of risks
and appropriate flood responses. This minimizes safety and infrastructure threats. As part of the
warning, the system provides a prediction of the scale, timing, location and likely damages of the
impending flood. The system uses data from sensors to measure water levels at strategic points in local
water basins (rivers, lakes) or flood defences (dikes, dams, embankments) to forecast a potential flood
event. The current increase in the number and degree of extreme weather events such as floods make
this technology important for climate change adaptation.

Implementation
Effective governance arrangements supported by political commitments should be established to
maintain the early warning systems’ four elements. All stakeholders, including local communities, local
and national government, international bodies, NGOs, the private sector and the scientific/technical
community should be involved in the planning phase. Roles and responsibilities for system management
and maintenance should be agreed upon, and necessary staff training should be completed prior to
implementation.
Implementation of each element:
Risk knowledge: Establish a system/agreement to collect and share data, figures, maps, etc. on flood
risks and vulnerability in the area.
Monitoring and warning service: Establish sensors measuring water levels at relevant sites in local
waterways and link them to the local database. The best available data and models should be chosen for
forecasting systems.
Dissemination and communication: Dissemination roles and responsibilities should be clear (e.g. media,
governance institutions, NGOs). A means to improve the area telecommunication network may be
necessary.
Response capability: Education, through information centres or training programmes, to improve
community disaster preparedness is important.
(UNISDR, 2006)

Environmental Benefits
- Gives timely notice for gated dam water release, reducing damage to surrounding communities and
ecosystems.

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Climate Change Adaptation Technologies for Water
A practitioner’s guide to adaptation technologies for increased
water sector resilience
WATER ADAPTATION TECHNOLOGY BRIEF

Socioeconomic Benefits
- Strengthens overall flood management, including preparedness, response and recovery.
- Minimizes human fatalities, injuries and health risks, as well as infrastructure damage, resulting from
floods.
- Reduces costs related to post-flood rehabilitation and rebuilding.
- Improves network connectivity within and between local communities.

Opportunities and Barriers

Opportunities:

- Provides climate change adaptation and resilience benefits

- Technological advances have allowed citizens to receive data directly from the warning systems
to their smartphones, improving dissemination speed and reach
- It is implemented at local and regional scales and can reach all societal groups, including those
that are especially vulnerable
- Improving disaster preparedness through the system can significantly reduce expensive relief
efforts.
Barriers:

- Limited telecommunication networks could reduce flood warning efficiency and distribution,
particularly in remote regions of developing countries
- The warning carries a degree of uncertainty, which could lead to false alarms
- Availability of good quality real time data may be limited.

Implementation considerations*
Technological maturity: 3-4
Initial investment: 3-5
Operational costs: 2-4
Implementation timeframe: 2-3

* This adaptation technology brief includes a general assessment of four dimensions relating to implementation of the
technology. It represents an indicative assessment scale of 1-5 as follows:
Technological maturity: 1 - in early stages of research and development, to 5 – fully mature and widely used
Initial investment: 1 – very low cost, to 5 – very high cost investment needed to implement technology
Operational costs: 1 – very low/no cost, to 5 – very high costs of operation and maintenance
Implementation timeframe: 1 – very quick to implement and reach desired capacity, to 5 – significant time investments needed
to establish and/or reach full capacity
This assessment is to be used as an indication only and is to be seen as relative to the other technologies included in this guide.
More specific costs and timelines are to be identified as relevant for the specific technology and geography.

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Climate Change Adaptation Technologies for Water
A practitioner’s guide to adaptation technologies for increased
water sector resilience
WATER ADAPTATION TECHNOLOGY BRIEF

Sources and further information

ADB (2014). Technologies to Support Climate Change Adaptation. Asian Development Bank.

NOAA (2010) Flash Flood Early Warning System Reference Guide. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. Available at:
http://www.meted.ucar.edu/communities/hazwarnsys/ffewsrg/FF_EWS.pdf

Parker, D., Tunstall, S. and Wilson, T. (2005). Socio-Economic Benefits of Flood Forecasting and Warning.
ACTIF/FloodMan/FloodRelief. Available at:
http://www.tbm.tudelft.nl/fileadmin/Faculteit/CiTG/Over_de_faculteit/Afdelingen/Afdeling_Waterbou
wkunde/sectie_waterbouwkunde/people/personal/gelder/publications/citations/doc/citatie_Parker_De
nnis.pdf

Thielen del Pozo, J., Thiemig, V., Pappenberger, F., Revilla-Romero, B., Salamon, P. De Groeve, T and
Hirpa, F. (2015). The benefit of continental flood early warning systems to reduce the impact of flood
disasters. Joint Research Centre, the European Commission. Available at:
http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC97266/lbna27533enn.pdf
UK POST (2005). Postnote: Early Warnings for Natural Disasters. London: Parliamentary Office of
Science and Technology. Available at: www.parliament.uk/documents/post/postpn239.pdf

UNISDR (2006). Developing Early Warning Systems: A Checklist. United Nations International Strategy
for Disaster Reduction. EWC III Third International Conference on Early Warning. Available at:
http://www.unisdr.org/2006/ppew/info-resources/ewc3/checklist/English.pdf

WMO/GWP (2013). Integrated Flood Management Tools Series Flood Forecasting and Early Warning.
Associated Programme on Flood Management (APFM), World Meteorological Organization (WMO),
Global Water Partnership (GWP). Issue 19, May 2013

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