International Flood Initiative (IFI)
IFI focuses on research, information networking, education and training, empowering communities and providing technical assistance and guidance.
Description
IFI is a joint initiative implemented in collaboration with international organizations such as UNESCO-IHP, WMO, UNDRR, UNU, IAHS, and IAHR. IFI was launched in January 2005 at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) in Kobe, Japan. The initiative is based on the concept of integrated flood management and aims to ensure that an end-to-end process of flood management is put in place in a balanced manner, duly considering prevention and mitigation measures as well as the positive and negative impacts of floods.
As the secretariat of IFI, the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) is promoting the global effort to establish Platforms on Water Resilience and Disasters based on the Jakarta Statement, which was adopted by the member organizations as the basic action plan of IFI after the elaborations at the October 2016 workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the January 2017 workshop in Tokyo, Japan. ICHARM has been supporting the establishment of Platforms on Water Resilience and Disasters in the Philippines, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. ICHARM has also started providing support for Indonesia.
Based on the statement, ICHARM is promoting activities at the local, national, regional, and global levels to contribute to integrated flood management in collaboration with the relevant organizations. By utilizing the newly developed hydro-meteorological models and knowledges such as the Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS) and the Rainfall-Runoff-Inundation (RRI) model, among others, achieved and expected results include 1) Flood forecasting and early warning, 2) Adaptation planning for change of society and climate, 3) Economic assessment on the effect of disasters, 4) Contingency planning to support local governments and communities, and 5) Capacity development through local workshops, training programs and e-learnings.
Did the Sendai Framework change or contribute to changes in your activities/organization? If so, how?
The Sendai Framework encourages the promotion of IFI activities at the local, national, regional, and global levels. For example, with a renewed focus from managing disasters to preventing risks, it provides opportunities for science and technology organizations to provide more evidence of risk in terms of hazards, exposure and vulnerability. Paragraph 36 (b) underlines the need for academia, scientific and research entities to increase focus on disaster risk factors and scenarios in the medium and long terms for regional, national and local applications in coordination with institutions in charge of policy design and implementation.
What led you to make this commitment/initiative?
What was your position before making this Voluntary Commitment / prior to the Sendai Framework?
IFI tries to contribute to the Sendai Framework on water-related disaster risk reduction through conducting innovative research, effective capacity building and efficient information networking.
Deliverables and Progress report
Deliverables
Deliverables are the end-products of the initiative/commitment, which can include issuance of publications or knowledge products, outcomes of workshops, training programs, videos, links, photographs, etc.
ICHARM developed a “Flood Simulation Experience Application,” which enables the user to have a realistic flood experience by using VR technology, whose progress has been remarkable in recent years. This application is expected to help people increase
awareness towards floods and thus to promote effective and efficient disaster prevention and mitigation activities by residents and other stakeholders involved in disaster prevention.
ICHARM has developed a concise flood-runoff analysis system as a toolkit for more effective and efficient flood forecasting in developing countries: "Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS)". IFAS provides interfaces to input not only satellite-based but ground-based rainfall data, as well as GIS functions to create river channel network and to estimate parameters of a default runoff analysis engine and interfaces to display output results. ICHARM has been conducting training seminars for users to utilize IFAS and to do a co-operative study with local governments, organizations, etc. ICHARM hopes that IFAS will be widely used as a basic tool for preparing flood forecasting and warning systems in insufficiently gauged basins.
Rainfall-Runoff-Inundation (RRI) model is a two-dimensional model capable of simulating rainfall-runoff and flood inundation simultaneously. The model deals with slopes and river channels separately. At a grid cell in which a river channel is located, the model assumes that both slope and river are positioned within the same grid cell. The channel is discretized as a single line along its centerline of the overlying slope grid cell. The flow on the slope grid cells is calculated with the 2D diffusive wave model, while the channel flow is calculated with the 1D diffusive wave model.
ICHARM has published a booklet entitled “Collection of Critical Situations during Flood Emergency Response,” aiming to improve the emergency response capacities of local governments for more effective management of flood disasters, which frequently occur across Japan in recent years.
The collection consists of the main content, “local government response,” and an appendix, “local government response under COVID-19.” It is downloadable in PDF file format.
As a secretariat of IFI, ICHARM provide the website and brochure of IFI.
Porgress report
Under the IFI scheme, the Platform on Water Resilience and Disasters will be established by the participating organizations in each country (the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Myanmar etc,), where we meet together to implement the target actions. ICHARM also receives the government officers and engineers from the IFI implementing organizations as trainees of PhD or master course program.
Under the IFI scheme, the participating organizations annually meet at the meetings of the Platform on Water Resilience and Disasters, where developing the progress reports and discussing about the implementation plans.
Organizations and focal points
Implementing Organization(s)
Focal points
If a VC's contact information has been hidden, the SFVC team can forward a message.Partners
- International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research, the
- United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
- World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
- International Association of Hydrological Sciences
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - Headquarters
