Write a Policy Brief on How Nigeria Should Use Space Technology to Combat Urban Flooding in Lagos

Lagos floods regularly and predictably. Areas like Bariga, Ajegunle, Oshodi, and Ikorodu face inundation almost every rainy season, yet the city's drainage infrastructure and early warning systems remain inadequate. Satellite-based tools, including synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, land-use change detection, and rainfall forecasting models, can give planners and emergency managers far better situational awareness, but there is no coherent policy framework requiring their use. Your task is to write a 1,500 to 2,500 word policy brief directed at the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources. The brief should explain what satellite and remote sensing tools are currently available (include at least two specific technologies and name their data sources), describe how other comparable cities or governments have used them, and then make three to five concrete, actionable recommendations for Lagos. Your recommendations must reckon with real constraints: limited government budgets, data-sharing barriers between NASRDA and state agencies, low technical capacity in state ministries, and the informal settlement patterns that make standard GIS data unreliable in many flood-prone areas. A strong submission will be written for a non-technical audience without dumbing down the substance. It will cite credible sources, acknowledge tradeoffs in each recommendation, and avoid generic calls for 'investment in technology.' The best briefs will propose something specific enough that a ministry official could actually act on it.