Mountainous Pacific countries are particularly susceptible to flood impacts. Aside from the obvious humanitarian impact of flooding, flooding also has an economic dimension. Recent assessments of flooding in Fiji and Samoa put annual costs from floods about USD 10 million and USD 220,000, respectively. Despite the immense social and economic costs PICs have commonly been reactive rather than proactive and tactical rather than strategic in dealing with the issue. The Nadi Integrated Flood Management (IFM) project aims to implement a mix of appropriate strategies and options which have been carefully evaluated based on technical feasibility, cost-effectiveness and socio-cultural viability/acceptability to reduce flood losses.
On 28 January 2011, SPC Director General Dr Jimmie Rodgers signed a grant agreement with the World Bank for Integrated Flood Management in the Pacific: Nadi Pilot. The project aims to develop integrated flood management for the Pacific using the Nadi catchment as a case study.
The Project was designed to complement and enhance the work of the GEF funded IWRM Demonstration Project in the Nadi catchment and build on synergies such as the Pacific HYCOS project, EU funded IWRM national planning programme and the AusAID NAP facility.
Figure1: Nadi Integrated Flood Management Project Area
Project components and outputs
The project addresses flood risk management through three main components:
- Institutional Strengthening of Flood Forecasting and Warning Systems
- Flood Risk Assessment and Identification of Mitigation Measures and Dissemination; and
- Institutional Strengthening for Integrated Flood Management
The project will work towards the:
- delivery and adoption of standard operating procedures for flood warning services;
- delivery and use of high-resolution topography model for the low-lying areas
- of Nadi – LiDAR survey;
- use of a 2D flood inundation model and flood hazard and risk maps to recommend flood mitigation measures and dissemination of the methodology to the Pacific region; and
- development and dissemination of integrated flood management policy documents outlining strategies and action plan.
Key Stakeholders
The integrated approach to flood risk management involves a range of stakeholders at national and local level. Such participation coupled with the investment in resources and technical support to be provided will help contribute to the longer term sustainability of the project.
The Nadi Basin Catchment Committee (NBCC) represents a large proportion of the stakeholders in the Nadi IFM. NBCC currently oversees and coordinates the implementation plan of the GEF IWRM Nadi demonstration project and it is envisaged that the implementation of the Nadi IFM project would as well be synchronised with their activities.
Key stakeholders would include the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), Town and Country Planning, Water Authority of Fiji (WAF), Fiji Meteorological Services and Land & Water Resources Management (LWRM).
Progress Update
Since the signing of the agreement there has been some progress.
LiDAR Survey
The Scope of Work for the LiDAR Survey to produce a high-resolution topography model for the catchment area was developed and has been incorporated into the Bidding documents as required by the World Bank.
The data from the LiDAR survey is an integral input into developing a 2 Dimensional (2D) flood inundation model. The invitation for bids was advertised on 15 August 2011 and deadline extended to 19 September 2011.
In support of this, ground topographic data was also collected using survey grade GPS.
A survey network was established with Department of Lands and Survey benchmarks.
Andrick Lal - Surveyor and Amrit Raj - Risk Mapping Assistant conducted the GPS survey of the Nadi project area from the 2nd to the 6th of August 2011.
The surveyed points collected will be used to process and verify the LiDAR data.
Flood modelling and mapping
Scope of Work for the Flood modelling and mapping was developed by Darren Lumbroso of HR Wallingford, a UK company renowned for its work in flood risk management. Darren was in Fiji from the 29th of August to the 11th of September 2011 and consulted key technical agencies in Suva, Nadi and Lautoka on the scope of work.
