The frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events are increasing, and they have impacted society in incredible ways. Particularly the interruptions of critical infrastructures such as electricity, communication, drinking water or transport systems lead to enormous, often long-lasting societal impacts including casualties and economic losses. That is because our dependence on them is increasing more than ever before.
Rapid and unplanned urbanization of many African cities together with climate change increases the vulnerability of these cities towards natural hazards including flooding. It is essential to know the impacts these natural hazards may have on the critical infrastructure so that proper action can be taken to reduce the damage. The direct implications of infrastructure failure can be estimated relatively accurately. However, the estimation of cascading impacts, though significant, is extremely uncertain.
In our session, we will show how we can use open data and stakeholder knowledge and experiences to identify the direct and indirect effects of infrastructure disruption. The participants will learn about the direct and cascading impacts of critical infrastructure disruption and failure due to flooding in Wakanda's capital city of Birnin Zana (“The Golden City”) that is run by the head of state T’Challa aka “the Black Panther” (recent fictional blockbuster movie based on MARVEL comics). As the key stakeholders of the city, the participants will have an opportunity to decide on the measures that can be taken to protect their city from those impacts and also to create new insights and opportunities that increase the liveability of the city..
We will use a participatory tool ‘CIrcle-Bao’, inspired by the famous East African game Bao, to guide the discussions and add elements of fun.