Rwanda’s National Disaster Early Warning System Mapping for Disaster Risk Reduction. SERVIR NPDRR focal points who attended the training in Kigali, Rwanda, together with SERVIR-Eastern and Southern Africa experts "The Disaster Information Portal/System we are codeveloping will help MIDIMAR and other stakeholders, both national and international, access hazard/disaster data in Rwanda.”- Mr. Jean Baptiste Nsengiyumva, the Director for MIDIMAR’s DRR department For more information, please contact: Dennis Macharia at [email protected] Across the globe, disasters and their impacts have been on the rise. Developing countries like Rwanda are especially vulnerable to risks from natural hazards such as floods, landslides, and drought. In addition, such countries often lack historical data on hazards and disasters because available data is scattered across sectors. This kind of data would be useful in planning management of future disasters. SERVIR-Eastern and Southern Africa (SERVIR-E&SA) is helping Rwanda and other countries in the region leverage geospatial technologies to reduce disaster risk and enhance regional capacity in disaster management. To determine the best approach, SERVIR-E&SA and MIDIMAR, conducted a Regional Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) needs assessment in Rwanda through interactions with end users -- mainly government agencies and other supporting agencies such as NGOs and UN/international institutions. The assessment highlighted the need to use geospatial technologies for DRR, for meeting data access needs, for strengthening institutions involved in disaster response and management, and for enhancing technical capacity. It became clear that a platform was needed to disseminate disaster risk profiles and other hazard and disaster related information. Such a portal is being co-developed by RCMRD and MIDIMAR. Hosted by MIDIMAR, the portal serves as a coordination platform facilitating data and information sharing with institutions and individuals working in the DRR area and allowing disaster risk profiles to be shared publicly. Further, this portal links national users to historical and near real time climate datasets. Available information includes the US Geological Survey Climate Hazard Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station (CHIRPS) precipitation, MODIS forest fire disaster impact trends from official sources in Rwanda, Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM) precipitation, and baseline maps and hazard maps generated from analyses of Earth observation datasets such as those from EO1. The portal also links national users with early warning information such as that from USGS Drought Early Warning Explorer. The web portal also helps MIDIMAR access data from all other institutions, and it will be a way of exchanging and accessing data on hazards.
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