Development of the community flood warning system for the Rio Cobre basin, Jamaica

ABSTRACT

The Community Flood Warning System has been designed in order to issue flood warnings to the communities threatened by flood events. The basic idea is that the system should be operated by the community itself using very simple procedures. The lower Rio Cobre was selected as a pilot area for developing this system. The river stage and the occurrence time of floods at Caymanas Bridge near Caymanas Estate are predicted based on rainfall information (either forecasted of observed) and the observed upstream river stage. Simple forecasting diagrams have been developed so the forecasters can easily predict the occurrence of a flood. The development of the system is one of the activities of the Flood Plain Mapping Project, sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme ans executed by the World Metereological Organization in cooperation with the Office of Disaster Preparedness and other Jamaican government agencies.(AU)