University of Ghana, Water Research Institute organize 3-day workshop on flood monitoring

A 3-day workshop organized by the University of Ghana and the Water Research Institute has commenced.

The workshop is on flood monitoring and forecasting under the Multiscale flood monitoring and assessment services for West Africa (MiFMaSS) project, and it is being held on the campus of the University of Ghana.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, the Dean of the School of Physical and Mathematics Department of the University of Ghana, Prof. Sandow Mark Yidana explained that the workshop was aimed at helping policymakers to develop a strategy to properly manage floods in the West African sub-region.

“What the research is about is that we collect data, hydrological data, and meteorological data. What we do is put these data into a useful format that will help decision-makers or disaster management organizations to manage floods when they do occur. There’s a basin that we have identified as a vulnerable basin in relation to floods and that’s our focus. In Ghana here, our focus basin is on the Black Volta basin so our data for hydrological modeling is from there.” he said.

He also mentioned that participants at the workshop were drawn from various institutions that need to be equipped with the necessary knowledge to deal with floods.

He also said mentioned that the University of Ghana, has over the years been committed to the project, saying that it has been focused on collecting data from other campuses.

“We have Ghana, Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Benin in Ghana, University of Ghana is one of the partners and Water Research Institute is another partner. The other partners are from the other countries I have mentioned. What the University of Ghana has done in the past and is still doing is to collect data from the various campuses, and each of the campuses has a focus basin," he stated.