What is BDINA?

The BDINA (ANADIA Niger Flood Database) was set in 2014 and gathers essential core data regarding flood impacts in Niger that had been collected since 1998 by CC/SAP (Niger Early Warning System Agency) and is updated yearly. The database was co-financed in the framework of the ANADIA (Adaptation au Changement Climatique Prévention des Catastrophes et Développent Agricole pour la Sécurité alimentaire) Niger Project by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Institute of Biometeorology of the National Research Council of Italy (IBIMET_CNR), the Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning of Turin University (DIST-POLITO) and the National Meteorology Directorate of Niger (DMN).

What kind of information is included in BDINA?

The information recorded includes flooding dates, settlements involved, people affected, human losses, crop and livestock losses as well as other occasional or heterogeneously-quantified damage to equipment, public facilities (e.g., hospitals, schools) and infrastructure (transport facilities such as roads, bridges). Sporadic information is provided concerning causes and flood types.

How are the data compiled?

Floods occurring in the first years since the beginning of monitoring (1998–2002) are often simply described at a regional or departmental level and only the number of flooded settlements are available, without specific information regarding their toponyms. Since 2003, CC/SAP has developed a specific framework to monitor population vulnerability to disasters and food security; it is based on a dense local network at the municipality level, known as vulnerability monitoring observatories (Observatories de Suivi de la Vulnerabilité—OSV). The mechanism covers the main vulnerable areas of the country and, among the various actions it performs, collects data concerning floods and their impacts. These data, after being validated by official multidisciplinary commissions at departmental and regional levels, are finally collected and gathered at the national level by CC/SAP. The data available from the BDINA are therefore much more precise and complete than those based on media sources or data derived from global disasters databases, especially for small disasters and/or concerning remote areas. BDINA entries are constantly reviewed for redundancy, inconsistencies and incompleteness. However, not all flood records report complete information, mainly due to the difficulty of precisely geo-locating some flooded settlements indicated by OSV. These settlements may have two or more different local toponyms or toponyms analogous to other villages in the same municipality. Consequently, in these cases it is not possible to identify them from the official national list of settlements (Répertoire National des Localités – RENALOC – of the Niger National Institute of Statistics) and precisely geo-locate them. In these circumstances, information on flood location is only given roughly at the municipality level.

Where can I find information on the methodology and BDINA’s content?

A complete description of the BDINA content, the compilation methodologies and the user guide is available in the User’s Manual.

How can I download the data/access to the BDINA data?

The BDINA data can be consulted through the “Consultation et visualisation des données” section of the website. The database section is composed of dynamic search tools. All the online generated tables, maps and trend charts are directly consultable without registration. However, download is only possible through a registration procedure.

What are the conditions of use?

Access to the BDINA database is made available free of charge. The reproduction and communication of the information from EM-DAT is authorized by any means and in all forms, provided that data is not used for commercial purposes and the source is clearly mentioned as follows:

BDINA: ANADIA Niger Flood Database – CC/SAP, Hassimou Issa – www.inondations-niger.org, Niamey, Niger.

What is the database search engine designed for?

The search engine has been designed to allow users to directly browse BDINA updated and validated flooding damage information. The search is composed of:

• Administrative. These filters allow to search flood events based on geographic and administrative selection. Available administrative division and settlement data is based on the 2012 official national list of settlements (Répertoire National des Localités – RENALOC – of the Niger National Institute of Statistics).
• Temporal filters. These filters allow to search flood events based on temporal selection.
• Damage filters. These filters allow to select flood events based on damage selection.
• Other filters. These filters allow to select flood events based on supplementary available data such as: type of flood, mm of rain that caused flood…

Search results are provided as follows:

• Dataset tables exportable as .xls files.
• PNG format maps providing geographical placement of flooded settlements and Geojson files of flooded settlements and related flood impacts.
• Pre-made graphs, exportable as .jpg files, that display trends of main flood impacts.

Citations

The current best publication of record for BDINA data is:
Fiorillo, E.; Crisci, A.; Issa, H.; Maracchi, G.; Morabito, M.; Tarchiani, V. Recent Changes of Floods and Related Impacts in Niger Based on the ANADIA Niger Flood Database. Climate 2018, 6, 59.