Chapter 17
Strengthening Flood and Drought Risk
Management Tools for the Lake Chad
Basin
Abou Amani, Justin Sheffield, Aleix Capdevilla, Mohammed Bila,
Colby Fisher, Ming Pan, Hylke Beck, Abdou Ali, Mohamed Hamatan,
Bernard Minoungou, Anil Mishra, Koen Verbist, Eric Wood,
and Blanca Jimenez-Cisneros
Abstract Lake Chad is extremely sensitive to climate variability because it is a
shallow inland lake, and about 97.5% of its water supply depends on the ChariLogone River System and other tributaries. Any increase or decrease in lake volume
inflow means a substantial increase or decrease in lake area. Droughts in the Sahel
Region and within the basin after the 1970s had great impact on discharges of different
tributaries, which led to a drastic decrease of water inflow in the lake, as well as
significant seasonal and inter-annual variation of the lake area over the last 50 years.
Information gaps about the water system and uncertainties about climate variability
and change remain a challenge. Hydrological extremes, both floods and droughts,
present a threat to agriculture and water resource management within the Lake Chad
Basin. Drought and flood monitoring over the basin is difficult because of the shortage
of observational data, both historic and in real time. Satellite remote sensing and
hydrological modelling are techniques used to compensate for the data collection
shortcomings of the region. The Africa Flood and Drought Monitoring (AFDM)
provides drought and flood monitoring, and short-term and seasonal forecasting that
combine climate prediction, hydrological modelling and remote sensing data in the
sub-Saharan African continent. For the Lake Chad Region, the system was adapted
A. Amani · A. Mishra · K. Verbist · B. Jimenez-Cisneros
Water Sciences Division, UNESCO, Paris, France
J. Sheffield (B)
University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
e-mail: justin.sheffield@soton.ac.uk
A. Capdevilla
World Bank, Washington, DC, USA
M. Bila
Lake Chad Basin Commission, N’Djamena, Chad
J. Sheffield · C. Fisher · M. Pan · H. Beck · E. Wood
Princeton Climate Analytics, Princeton, USA
A. Ali · M. Hamatan · B. Minoungou
AGRHYMET Regional Centre, Niamey, Niger
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. Diop et al. (eds.), Climate Change and Water Resources in Africa,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61225-2_17
387
Strengthening Flood and Drought Risk
Management Tools for the Lake Chad
Basin
Abou Amani, Justin Sheffield, Aleix Capdevilla, Mohammed Bila,
Colby Fisher, Ming Pan, Hylke Beck, Abdou Ali, Mohamed Hamatan,
Bernard Minoungou, Anil Mishra, Koen Verbist, Eric Wood,
and Blanca Jimenez-Cisneros
Abstract Lake Chad is extremely sensitive to climate variability because it is a
shallow inland lake, and about 97.5% of its water supply depends on the ChariLogone River System and other tributaries. Any increase or decrease in lake volume
inflow means a substantial increase or decrease in lake area. Droughts in the Sahel
Region and within the basin after the 1970s had great impact on discharges of different
tributaries, which led to a drastic decrease of water inflow in the lake, as well as
significant seasonal and inter-annual variation of the lake area over the last 50 years.
Information gaps about the water system and uncertainties about climate variability
and change remain a challenge. Hydrological extremes, both floods and droughts,
present a threat to agriculture and water resource management within the Lake Chad
Basin. Drought and flood monitoring over the basin is difficult because of the shortage
of observational data, both historic and in real time. Satellite remote sensing and
hydrological modelling are techniques used to compensate for the data collection
shortcomings of the region. The Africa Flood and Drought Monitoring (AFDM)
provides drought and flood monitoring, and short-term and seasonal forecasting that
combine climate prediction, hydrological modelling and remote sensing data in the
sub-Saharan African continent. For the Lake Chad Region, the system was adapted
A. Amani · A. Mishra · K. Verbist · B. Jimenez-Cisneros
Water Sciences Division, UNESCO, Paris, France
J. Sheffield (B)
University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
e-mail: justin.sheffield@soton.ac.uk
A. Capdevilla
World Bank, Washington, DC, USA
M. Bila
Lake Chad Basin Commission, N’Djamena, Chad
J. Sheffield · C. Fisher · M. Pan · H. Beck · E. Wood
Princeton Climate Analytics, Princeton, USA
A. Ali · M. Hamatan · B. Minoungou
AGRHYMET Regional Centre, Niamey, Niger
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. Diop et al. (eds.), Climate Change and Water Resources in Africa,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61225-2_17
387