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Contact
You can contact the SHEAR programme by emailing shear@nerc.ukri.org.
SHEAR projects overview
Research consortia projects
| Project | Country | Summary | Partners |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forecasts for AnTicipatory HUManitarian action (FATHUM) | Mozambique Uganda |
FATHUM increased how far in advance floods can be forecast and improved understanding of flood risk so that forecasts can be used to make finance available before a flood occurs, supporting more effective humanitarian response and enabling longer-term preparedness to be built. | Lead investigator: Liz Stephens, University of Reading |
| Forecast-based Preparedness Action: Probabilistic Forecast Information for Defensible Preparedness Decision-Making and Action (ForPAc) | Kenya | ForPAc improved forecasts for flooding and drought to support decision making for early action to reduce the impacts of these hazard events. New forecasting products, which provide information about the impact of weather and climate conditions as well as their likelihood, and strengthening of current early warning systems, support action in anticipation of disasters, rather than in response to them. | Lead investigator: Martin Todd, University of Sussex |
| Citizen Science for Landslide Risk Reduction and Disaster Resilience Building in Mountain Regions (Lansdlide-EVO) | Nepal | Landslide-EVO worked to develop an existing flood early warning system in Nepal into a multi-hazard early warning system that also supports resilience to landslides, producing highly detailed landslide risk maps, based on data from satellite imagery and from sensor networks, and using a 'citizen science' approach to build community disaster resilience through participation. | Lead investigator: Wouter Buytaert, Imperial College London |
| LANDSLide multi-hazard risk assessment, Preparedness and early warning in South Asia: integrating meteorology, landscape and society (LANDSLIP) | India | LANDSLIP developed a prototype regional forecasting system for rainfall-induced landslides, working with national and district authorities to improve landslide risk assessment and preparedness. | Lead investigators: Bruce Malamud, King's College London Emma Bee, British Geological Survey |
Targeted projects
The four research consortia projects were complemented by a range of targeted projects focusing in-depth on key SHEAR themes.
Understanding hazard risk
| Project | Country | Summary | Partners |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accounting for BOUlders in Landslide-flood Disaster Evaluation and Resilience (BOULDER) | Nepal | The BOULDER project developed an innovative GPS tracking system to improve understanding of how boulders move in floods and monitor hazardous boulders. | Lead investigator: Georgina Bennett, University of East Anglia |
| Climate service for resilience to overheating risk in Colombo, Sri Lanka: a multiscale mapping approach (COSMA) | Sri Lanka | COSMA incorporated indigenous design knowledge into heatwave early warning systems, action plans and future design practices. | Lead investigator: Zhiwen Luo, University of Reading |
| Compound flooding from tropical cyclone-induced sea surge and precipitation in Sri Lanka (C-FLOOD) | Sri Lanka | C-FLOOD improved prediction of how flooding will inundate communities, producing new and innovative compound flood hazard maps to improve preparedness and mitigation measures. | Lead investigator: Alison Raby, University of Plymouth |
| Connecting water resources, communities, drought and flood hazards, and governance across four countries in the Limpopo basin (Connect4 water resilience) | Botswana Mozambique South Africa Zimbabwe |
Water resilience project improved understanding of the physical and social factors affecting vulnerability and resilience to drought and floods, enabling more effective identification of likely hazards and areas at most risk. | Lead investigator: Jean-Cristophe Comte, University of Aberdeen |
| Next generation flood hazard mapping for the African continent at hyper-resolution (HYFLOOD) | Democratic Republic of Congo | The HYFLOOD project developed flood hazard maps at regional to community scales, improving understanding of the occurrence, location and intensity of flooding with unprecedented detail. | Lead investigator: Jeffrey Neal, University of Bristol |
| Towards resilience to pluvial flood events | Uganda | The Towards Resilience project has been working to understand the hydrometeorological factors that lead to pluvial flash flooding and the impacts these hazards have on local communities and infrastructure. The project has provided communities, emergency services, and institutional decision makers with the information they need to prepare and respond to flooding. | Lead investigator: Claire Walsh, Newcastle University |
| Earthquakes and landslides in Nepal | Nepal | The Earthquakes and Landslides in Nepal project used satellite imagery to develop comprehensive inventories of landslides between 2015 and 2019 across the area most badly damaged by the 2015 earthquake, developing an atlas of risk maps to support landslide risk mitigation and management. | Lead investigator: Nick Rosser, Durham University |
Developing early warning
| Project | Country | Summary | Partners |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nowcasting FLood Impacts of Convective storms in the Sahel (NFLICS) | Senegal | NFLICS has developed new nowcasting approaches to provide information about current weather conditions to support decision making. This real-time flood risk information allows communities to develop and take actions that mitigate flood damage, improving resilience and adaptation planning to extreme rainfall events. | Lead investigator: Steven Cole, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology |
| Predicting Impacts of Cyclones in South-East Africa (PICSEA) | Madagascar Mozambique Seychelles |
The PICSEA phas assessed a range of forecasting systems to provide meteorological agencies, humanitarian communities, and the growing forecast-based financing community with the information they need to better interpret them and make decisions about how to respond. The project has also launched a new website with communication and training material for forecasters and humanitarians. | Lead investigator: Pier Luigi Vidale, University of Reading |
| Web-based natural dam-burst flood hazard Assessment and foreCasting sysTem (WeACT) | Nepal | WeACT applied data from earth observation and models of dam-break floods to develop an innovative web-based hazard assessment and forecasting system for floods related to glacial lake outbursts, and developed methods and tools to improve community flood preparedness and resilience. | Lead investigator: Qiuhua Liang, Loughborough University |
Developing early action
| Project | Country | Summary | Partners |
|---|---|---|---|
| Improving Preparedness to Agro-Climatic Extremes in Malawi (IPACE-Malawi) | Malawi | The IPACE-Malawi project improved the forecasting and delivery of agriculture-specific weather information so that farmers and humanitarian and disaster response organisations can better prepare for flood and drought hazards. | Lead investigator: Rosalind Cornforth, University of Reading |
Developing early action: disaster risk financing
| Project | Country | Summary | Partners |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drought Index-insurance for Resilience in the Sahel and Horn of Africa (DIRISHA) | Kenya | DIRISHA has established a regional database of indicators to develop index-based insurance products to protect the food and income security of pastoralists who lose valuable livestock to drought. | Lead investigators: International Livestock Research Institute (a CGIAR Research Centre) Francesco Fava, University of Milan Rupsha Banerjee, International Livestock Research Institute |
| Satellite data for Weather Index Insurance-AgricuLtural EaRly warning system (SatWIN-ALERT) | Ethiopia Malawi Nigeria Senegal Zambia |
The SatWIN-ALERT project has been working to support the insurance community to better define indices for index-based crop insurance, so that insurance payouts meet farmers’ needs following weather and climate impacts on agriculture. | Lead investigator: Emily Black, University of Reading |
| The Drought Risk finance Science Laboratory (DRiSL) | Madagascar Pakistan Zimbabwe |
The DRiSL project has been working to support disaster risk managers and humanitarian actors to use forecast information in decision-baking by providing independent reviews of the credibility and reliability of drought forecast products. | Lead investigator: Martin Todd, University of Sussex |
| Mitigating basis risk in weather index-based crop insurance: harnessing models and big data to enable climate-resilient agriculture in India | India Kenya |
The Mitigating Basis Risk project developed new data and tools to monitor crop development and estimate crop yields using combinations of smartphone imagery, satellite remote sensing, and crop models so that crop yields can be more accurately measured, and insurers can provide suitable cover for farmers. | Lead investigator: Timothy Foster, University of Manchester |
| Improving the Role of Information Systems in Anticipatory Disaster Risk Reduction (IRIS) | Botaswana Pakistan Philippines |
IRIS has developed a method of measuring and displaying forecast information so that humanitarian agencies can use it to act before disasters occur. | Lead investigator: Leonard Smith, London School of Economics & Political Science |
| Integrated Threshold Development for Parametric Insurance Solutions for Guangdong Province, China (INPAIS) | China | INPAIS has improved the accuracy of the predefined conditions needed for parametric insurance to be released, enabling more rapid response to tropical cyclone events and providing financial protection from losses. | Lead investigator: Gregor Leckebusch, University of Birmingham |
| Coastal Ecosystem Recovery Financing for the Future: developing insurance products to enhance response and recovery from tropical cyclones (CERFF) | Grenada | CERFF developed an insurance product that will enable rapid responses to extreme events, reducing the impact of tropical cyclones by supporting preparedness and rapid response, to enable rehabilitation of the reef or seagrass bed or to compensate people who depend on the ecosystem for their livelihood for their loss of earnings. | Lead investigator: Piran White, University of York |