CRIC will assist the development of flood early warning system tools in Bandar Lampung and Pangkalpinang, to prepare the city’s preparedness and adaptive capacity to climate change. CRIC spoke with early warning system development expert Professor Yousef Diab from Gustave Eiffel University, CRIC’s European partner. The following is an excerpt from a short virtual interview with Professor Yousef Diab.

Please introduce yourself and explain your background expertise.

My name is Youssef Diab, Professor at Gustave Eiffel University based in Paris, France. My campus is dedicated to urban studies, city management and decision-making for local governments. I also research and teach urban planning and development, particularly in engineering, whether related to energy, solid waste management, transportation and water networks. I specialize in resilience as a holistic approach to achieving sustainability.

You were responsible for co-developing the flood Early Warning System tool through the CRIC Project. Can you describe your approach to developing this tool?

I would first like to highlight two important components of the system, the technical and social components. So, the methodology we use also refers to these two. Technically, the hardware and software. Socially, we must ensure the target of this system development, how to build relationships and involve various stakeholders in the early warning system information chain and overall system development.

How can the approach you described be implemented in the development of Early Warning Systems in CRIC pilot cities, e.g. Bandar Lampung or Pangkalpinang?

Existing studies show Bandar Lampung’s vulnerability to flooding, which is the city’s top climate disaster. We need a systemic approach to address this, linking upstream to downstream interventions. Cities need early warnings upstream so that residents potentially affected by flooding in urban areas can anticipate this. Technically, for example, we have river water level gauges upstream that have been developed by local universities. Then, socially, we need to look at the local context in which this early warning system will be developed, for example how the roles and collaboration of various parties. The existence of an early warning system upstream is necessary to provide technical information about the level of danger. But in line with this, we need to ensure how this information is received so that all stakeholders can take appropriate action before, during and after the flood.

I would also like to emphasize the importance of having these early warning systems overlap with urban systems and infrastructure, such as transportation systems and sewage networks.

What are the key prerequisites you need in developing early warning system tools in CRIC pilot cities?

We need information and data about the city and the performance of the existing system in the city. The availability of data will help us conduct qualitative and quantitative studies to make our device proposal operational.

How do you think we can ensure that the early warning system tools developed are adopted in a sustainable way?

The main one is the involvement of community groups. Early warning system development should involve the community and all stakeholders. It is also important to determine the stakeholder responsible for the climate resilience strategy and/or the early warning system operator. The third is technical, i.e. determining whether the early warning system developed will be based on GIS (internet-based digital mapping) applications or others. This also needs to consider the existing practices in the city.