Name of the Asset | InfoClim: An Effective Means of Climate Information and Early Warning Services for Flood Resilience in Bangladesh
Type of Asset | Research
Date | January 2026
DOI | 10.69814/wp/2025105
SUMMARY
The risk of flooding is increasing due to unpredictable rainfall patterns, making effective early warning systems essential to reduce damage. The action research focused on two subdistricts, Char Rajibpur in Kurigram and Saghata in Gaibandha. This action research adopted multidisciplinary methods to generate evidence from both communities. It has measured flood-induced losses and damage for the years of 2017 (base year, 2021, and 2024 by the combination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing (satellite data), and hydrodynamic modeling to identify inundated areas and estimate damages. From 2019 to 2025, the action research is disseminating real-time localized user-friendly climate information services and early warning to the community people using voice SMS. The study also generated quasi-experimental data from the research participations for the years of 2017 (base year, 2021, and 2024. The study included a total of 180 families affected by floods, with 42 participants from Char Rajibpur and 138 from the Saghata sub-district. An easy-tounderstand and well-organized data format was developed for the research participants to generate quarterly longitudinal data and loss and damage data beyond flood. The study also collected historical information related to flood, loss and damage, death toll from the District Statistics Office, District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer, Department of Agriculture Extension, Department of Livestock and Poultry, Civil Surgeon, Upazila Health Complex, and several NGOs. The action research finds that early actions using InfoClim are effective in flood induced loss and damage reduction, household resilience, and community resilience by adopting location-specific real-time information. InfoClim, as an effective flood forecasting and early warning mechanism, should be enhanced and scaled up to reduce flood-induced loss and damage in flood-vulnerable areas.
AUTHORS | Muhammad Abdur Rahaman, Khaled Muhammad Mehzabin Alam Prottoy, Shamina Akter, Mazharul Kabir, Mahib Mahatasim, Amreen Islam
COUNTRY AND/OR REGION | Bangladesh
PROGRAMME | Global Development Conference 2025: Call for Papers
