Earth Observation for Flood and Drought Resilience in Ethiopia

Flooding and drought pose severe risks to Ethiopia’s economy and society. Recent analysis by EDRI in collaboration with Vivid Economics and the University of Oxford shows that even modest hydrological variation can affect GDP in the Awash River basin by as much as 5%, with prolonged dry periods causing output to fall by more than 20%. Replicated across the economy, the value of such impacts is more than $10bn – a figure that is set to grow rapidly as the economy develops and climate change takes root. Part of the challenge of improving resilience to these risks is a lack of geographically granular information on the likelihood of flood or drought and on the socio-economic impacts of these events. Such information can help policy makers deploy limited resources more efficiently to improve resilience where it matters most. This project aims to address problem of flooding and drought by developing an integrated mapping tool that shows where flood and drought risks are most acute how these events shape social and economic outcomes in different localities, and how vulnerabilities are set to change in the future.