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Environment & ClimateOpen
Build a Flood Risk Map for Port Harcourt's Informal Settlements
Use open data and community research to map flood-prone areas in Port Harcourt's low-income neighbourhoods, and produce a risk brief that local planners or NGOs can actually use.
The brief
Port Harcourt floods almost every rainy season. The worst hit are informal settlements like Diobu and Rumuola, where drainage is poor, buildings sit on low ground, and residents get little or no warning. The people who live there know the patterns intimately. The official data often does not.
Your job is to build a flood risk map for at least two neighbourhoods in Port Harcourt, using a combination of satellite imagery (Google Earth Engine or NASA Earthdata), OpenStreetMap data, and a short community survey of 15 to 20 residents. You will identify which streets, clusters, and infrastructure points face the highest risk, and why.
The deliverable is a visual map (produced in QGIS, Google MyMaps, or a similar tool) paired with a 3 to 5 page risk brief. The brief should explain your methodology, what the map shows, and at least three specific recommendations for local government or an NGO working in those areas.
Good work will be grounded in real place names and real conditions, not hypothetical scenarios. It will show you understood the limits of your data, noted where gaps exist, and still produced something actionable. A planner reading it should be able to make a decision.