Salford academic helps map Africa flood risk using AI

New research by a Salford University Fellow aims to use AI to help vulnerable countries in Africa facing increased flooding risk due to climate change.

Working as part of Salford’s THINKlab, Dr Thomas O’Shea’s paper, integrating social narratives of flood events into a text network analysis-based decision support framework to reduce vulnerability to climate change in Africa is just published in Climate Services journal.

The interdisciplinary research project, looking at sustainable urban development solutions to flood risk, was born from the lack of access to crucial data needed by many African countries to be able to respond to climate change events.

One of these crucial pieces of data includes accurate flood maps. Spearheaded by Salford, The University of Zambia (UNZA) and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, their mission was to develop a climate resilience strategy using localised flood maps and multiple downscaled Met Office climate models.

The FRACTAL-PLUS project’s localised flood maps were evaluated across two “Learning Labs” with stakeholders in Lusaka, Zambia, enhancing their impact with artificial intelligence techniques.

This approach enabled meaningful engagement with both experts and non-experts, rapidly informing strategic future planning amidst the uncertainties of a changing climate and data scarcity within the Global South.

By integrating community-based flood risk narratives, the project not only improved stakeholder engagement but also offered a benchmark for resilience planning and resource utilisation. This innovative approach highlights the importance of localised data and interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing climate challenges.

 Dr Thomas O’Shea said: “This paper captures community flood risk narratives and demonstrates how they can streamline the resilience-building timeline when high-quality data is scarce. Artificial Intelligence was a huge help in analysing large datasets and finding patterns in them.

“The methods applied for the Lusaka case study are also purpose-built to be replicable and scalable for different physical event types, socio-cultural settings and for mapping the synergy between these aspects far into the future, supporting climate-informed decision making and consolidating climate services research.”

For further information on the project and its methodology, you can read Dr O’Shea’s research paper here.

Thomas is one of our University Fellows at Salford; a group of 21 early career academics delivering transformational research across our four schools.

The University Fellows are tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges through world-leading research and innovation – from climate change, healthy living and inequality to noise pollution and keeping our bees buzzing.

For their first two years at Salford, the University Fellows are focussing exclusively on establishing the foundations for research leadership and excellence in their fields. Innovators of the future, they are forming ideas that will shape the world.

Find out more about the University Fellows: 21 ways our University Fellows are shaping the world 21 ways our University Fellows are shaping the world