Flood Risk Mitigation with WaterProof

I work in hydrology, water resources assessment in Colombia. My interest in this course comes from the need to integrate Nature-based Solutions into flood risk management and territorial planning.

In early investment stages, I consider essential the use of hydrological and climate data, flood hazard maps, land cover, topography, historical events, and future climate scenarios. GIS, hydrological modelling, remote sensing, and multicriteria analysis are useful tools to identify priority areas and compare alternatives.

A main challenge is the limited availability of local data to evaluate the effectiveness of Nature-based Solutions. It is also necessary to consider technical performance together with land availability, costs, maintenance, social acceptance, and environmental benefits.

I am Lateefat, a graduate in Forestry and Wildlife Management and a research intern at the Federal College of Forestry, Ibadan, Nigeria. I work in Ibadan/Ilorin, where flooding is a recurring problem, especially in fast-growing urban areas with poor drainage and loss of vegetation cover. I found this course while searching for more knowledge on how NBS can help in flood mitigation and I joined because I want to learn how forest and vegetation-based approaches can be used for flood risk reduction.

The main challenges I usually face are limited and poorly maintained hydrological and flood data, weak coordination between agencies, difficulty proving the benefits of nature-based solutions in monetary terms, competing land uses and limited long-term funding for maintenances.
I will be glad if local communities and traditional authorities are involved in design, protection and monitoring.

I look forward to learning from everyone's experiences.

Hello! I'm Amy, the Little Sioux Watershed Project Director for The Nature Conservancy and facilitator of the Little Sioux Watershed Conservation Partnership (LSWCP). I'm located in the state of Iowa, USA. One of the internal TNC networks shared the webinar invitation via email.
We're currently working with local city and county governments, along with several federal and state agencies to design a watershed-wide plan focused on flood reduction, community resilience, and increased recreational opportunities using NbS. That made learning about this tool a perfect fit.

 

I consider hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, local knowledge, and stakeholder - not just government, but also community members - buy-in as critical to decision making in early implementation stages. Knowing how to translate the science into concepts locals care about goes so far when introducing NbS to those not familiar with it. Another item is showing multiple benefits to these practices: Increasing healthy outdoor recreational opportunities for community members that may even bring in tourism dollars can really increase the level of engagement and enthusiasm.

Hello everyone! I am Abdul-roqeeb Solotan, a recent graduate in Lagos, Nigeria. I came across this course on LinkedIn; I am participating in this course so I can learn how best to address the severe coastal erosion and urban flooding facing our megacity.

The primary challenges in implementing Nature-based Solutions (NbS) locally stem from intense land competition where coastal mangrove buffers have been sand-filled, political bias toward quick concrete projects, and a lack of long-term operational funding. De-risking these projects for early-stage investors requires high-resolution hydrological data, clear avoided-damage cost models, and spatial screening to ensure sites are protected from urban encroachment.

To drive adoption in Lagos and in Nigeria in general, local policy must mandate green-gray assessments in public procurement, strictly enforce coastal wetland zoning, and establish dedicated municipal funds for long-term ecosystem maintenance.

Hello I am Haimanti. I am currently based in Ohio, USA. I am an environmental project manager from India. Looking for oppurtunities to work in the Nature sector here.
I have worked and studied Sunderbans, the largest mangrove forested islands located in the Indo Gangetic delta shared between Bangladesh and India. These islands are constantly built and eroded by the salt water and are also flooded. Inhabited by economically marginalized population, flood risk assessment and NbS could be boon for them. Dykes, sand bars were discussed as flood risk management but NbS is so much better.
I am interested in NbS and attend webinars from TNC and thats how I came to know about this.
I am a freelancer and volunteer for a few nature based organizations and I think learning to use Waterproof would be a great skill to have for me.

Hello. My name is Monserrate Vélez. I work at Fondagua, which is a Water Fund in Ecuador. I am the Technical Chief. We work in the Daule river basin, on the Ecuadorian coast. This is the basin that provides water to Guayaquil, the largest city in my country.
I live in the lower basin, and because of ENSO forecast, I am deeply concerned about flooding.
In my opinion, the main challenge in implementing nature-based solutions is communicating the benefits to decision-makers and securing funding. In my city and in this basin, we need to implement a local policy that enables fundraising to support the adoption and implementation of these kinds of solutions.

Hello, my name is Paula, and I am an Environmental Engineering student in Bogotá, Colombia. A classmate recommended this course to me, and I saw it as an opportunity to expand my knowledge of flood risk management and learn more about environmental sustainability and community resilience.

In my opinion, early investment decisions should be supported by reliable data on rainfall patterns, historical flood events, land use, drainage systems, and climate projections. It is also essential to identify both the hazards and the vulnerability of exposed communities and infrastructure, since flood risk depends not only on the physical event but also on the social, environmental, and economic conditions that make an area more susceptible to its impacts. The use of appropriate modelling tools, risk maps, and hydrological simulations can help compare different scenarios, identify priority areas, and evaluate the potential effectiveness of proposed interventions before investing resources.

Nature-based Solutions, such as wetland restoration, riverbank protection, urban green spaces, and sustainable drainage systems, can help reduce flood risks while providing additional benefits for biodiversity and water management. However, their implementation faces several challenges, like limited funding, insufficient institutional support, lack of local knowledge, and poor coordination. Additionally, unplanned urbanization, deforestation, and inadequate drainage systems can increase flood risks and worsen their impacts.

In Colombia, these challenges are particularly relevant due to our diverse geography, Caribbean and Pacific coastlines, seasonal heavy rainfall, and vulnerability to climate change. I believe governments should strengthen environmental planning, improve access to data and technical resources, and promote community participation. Integrating Nature-based solutions into land-use planning and disaster risk management policies could help reduce flood risks while providing long-term environmental and social benefits.

Hi everyone, my name is Lorenna Vazquez. I have a Masters in Geology with emphasis in Environmental Remote Sensing but worked for 10 years with the USGS Water division in Puerto Rico, so my main expertise is in water. I'm now a Scientific Professional Services Consultant so it became a must to be on top of the new technologies and techniques that are available. As such, I recently completed another NbS certification, and they recommended we take this course so I'm excited to be here. In terms of main challenges to implement NbS for flood risk, I agree with other colleagues here mentioning that communication with decision makers is key. Scientists need to clearly convey the pressuring need for them to prioritize flood risk mitigation in a way that aligns with short and long-term benefits that can justify the cost for stakeholders. For this, a thorough assessment of the issues are needed and I believe a good recommendation is to work alongside environmental non-profits, which might help close any gap in governmental databases which are rarely well-maintained were I reside.