Somalia gets both disasters, often in the same year
Drought builds slowly enough that it can be seen coming, and floods arrive fast enough that the only useful map is the one produced within days. Both are observable from orbit. Neither is well observed here, which is why responses are so often sized after the fact.
Before, during, and the part everyone skips
Most programmes buy imagery during. The value of before and after is considerably higher and considerably cheaper.
Early warning
Vegetation stress, water body extent and rainfall anomaly diverge from the seasonal norm weeks before a drought is declared. That window is the difference between a response and a rescue.
Extent, within days
Radar imagery penetrates cloud, which matters because floods arrive with weather. Inundation mapping shows which settlements, roads and cropland are actually affected rather than which were expected to be.
Evidence and recovery
What was lost, where recovery is happening and where it is not. This is what a funder asks for six months later, and it is far harder to assemble retrospectively than to have collected.
Four outputs, in a form you can act on
Inundation maps
Flood extent by date, overlaid on settlements, roads and cropland, produced from radar so cloud does not delay it.
- Used for
- Targeting a response in the first week
Drought indicators
Vegetation and moisture anomaly against a multi-year baseline, by district, updated through the season.
- Used for
- Early warning and pre-positioning
Exposure analysis
How many people, structures and hectares sit inside the affected area — the number every situation report needs on day two.
- Used for
- Sizing a response and justifying it
Recovery tracking
Repeat observation over the months afterwards, showing where land, settlement and cropping have returned and where they have not.
- Used for
- Reporting, and deciding where to stay
Tell us the basin, the season, and the decision
Whether you are watching the Shabelle and Juba for flooding or a set of districts for drought, the useful conversation starts with what you would do differently once you knew.