Consultancy for conducting feasibility study for Flood Risk Mitigation Option in Bardere City 48 views0 applications

Terms of Reference

Consultancy for conducting feasibility study for Flood Risk Mitigation Option in Bardere City

BACKGROUND

In November 2023, Elnino flooding struck southern and central Somali, causing thousands of people to evacuate their homes. Many of these displaced populations have been forced to live in makeshift camps under degraded conditions, having lost their houses and livelihoods. Bardere, the riverine town of Gedo region has been one of the worst affected areas due to intense rainfall and flash floods in October 2023. The overflow of the Juba River inundated many villages in the town, resulting in deaths and damaged homes and infrastructure. Individuals lost their lives, and thousands were forced to move to IDP camps for safety reasons.

Aiming to expand its assistance to the national and local stakeholders, Concern seeks the services of a qualified consulting entity proficient in designing nature-based solutions, conducting flood risk, including multi-hazard assessments and exploring the feasibility of possible structural and non-structural flood mitigation options. The assignment will also include modelling surface runoff, flood simulation, and sediment transport processes to the extent necessary for determining potential flood risks and identification of short- and long-term measures. This process will conclude with actionable recommendations for future basin-scale flood risk mitigation measures (nature-based solutions) including specific possible contributions from community, municipal, and state-level authorities, whose implementation would enhance the overall resilience of communities to future flooding.

• TERRA PROJECT IN SOMALIA

The BRCiS Consortium is implementing a 2-year project focusing on improving the food security of Displacement-Affected Communities (DACs) in Somalia, including both the urban/peri-urban communities hosting IDPs and the rural communities from which populations are displaced, among other causes, by climate shocks and environmental degradation. The Towards Regenerative Resilience and Climate Adaptation for Displacement-Affected Communities in Somalia (TERRA) project adopted a regenerative, community-led design that brings together urban and rural DACs, equipping them with the necessary skills and resources to jointly regenerate their food systems, adapt to the risks of climate change, and create mutually reinforcing economic linkages. The TERRA Project focuses on use of the USAID Resilience Design for Smallholder Farming Systems for strengthening the resilience of local food systems, regenerating degraded landscapes, and stabilizing hydrology. Resilience Design proposes a broad toolkit of soil and water conservation practices.

• OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The overall objective of the assignment is to conduct a comprehensive study to assess flood risks, identify flood risk mitigation options, and explore the technical, environmental, and economic feasibility of these options in Bardere City and surrounding areas. To support this exercise the entire landscape of the Juba River watershed prone to floods will be studied, adopting a multilayer analysis that includes interactions and interdependencies between ecosystems and human socioeconomic systems.

The assessment is expected to adopt a watershed approach focusing on the catchment upstream of the targeted community of Bardere City as the defining geographical area of interest, taking into account the area downstream, analyzing the hydrology (groundwater and surface water), undertaking a river basin diagnosis and evaluating how vulnerabilities of targeted communities expose them to the flood risk and subsequent compounding effects (crisis within a crisis).

Specifically, the study will assess exposure, vulnerabilities, existing coping mechanisms, and capacities of communities and institutions in the target area to manage floods based on existing secondary data complemented by hydrogeological and meteorological (historical and forecast probabilities) information and primary data collection. This work will produce an overview of flood risks in Bardere City, prepare flood risk maps, and identify physical and non-physical interventions, including nature-based solutions for flood mitigation, enhancing prevention, and preparedness capabilities within the target area. Study results must clearly outline risk mitigation options informed through a cost-benefit analysis to enable BRCiS to develop tailored mitigation plans that ultimately contribute to improving the resilience of riverine communities in Bardere.

The Priorities of the Study include the following:

• Undertake literature review of existing information available on flood hazard risks of Juba River watershed. This includes existing studies (since 65% of juba basin is Ethiopia and 5% in Kenya, the consultant should not restrict the available data in Somalia only but also Ethiopia and Kenya) undertaken for the catchment with respect to hazard vulnerability, specifically flooding, attaining historical and current rainfall data and flooding for the region, existing maps, data from Environment Impact Assessments and other relevant documents
• Undertake data collection to assess the state of existing environment, fill information gap and to get the most up to date information. This shall include topographical and hydrogeological studies of the river basin, development of fine digital scale elevation models characteristics and production of flood maps that address data gaps on the effects of smaller rivers (tributaries), terrain, built infrastructure and urban drainage systems
• Based on the flood risk assessment and ecosystem analysis, identify a potential set of possible based solutions or hybrid strategies to reduce flood risk exposure of local communities and economy to the impact of floods and mitigate the consequence once a flood occurs
• Develop, in close coordination with stakeholder’s sustainable flood protection and drainage interventions, Nature based and hybrid (green and grey) solutions that are adequate, cost effective, environmentally and socially friendly and economically feasible for flood risk mitigation.
• Identify a full range of opportunities and benefits beyond flood risk reduction and their value addition to the communities and ecosystem for all options under consideration
• Identify locations and specifications for flood resilient intervention including but not limited to water infrastructure for productive use, linked and integrated to floods mitigation with a focus on alternative livelihoods.
• Conduct feasibility assessments to determine the best possible options for flood risk mitigation taking in to account financial, social and environmental context. When undertaking the feasibility study, maps need to be developed for various future climate scenarios and the robustness of the different proposed options in each of these climate scenarios needs to be investigated. In addition, the system needs to be tested for various extreme weather events such as one in 25year, one in 50-year, flood events.

METHODOLOGY

An appropriate methodology should be proposed and determined by the consultant(s) with support from the Concern team jointly with other BRCiS partners and the Consortium Management Unit (CMU). It is proposed that the consultant(s) include as a minimum the following sequence of action to achieve the desired results:

Preparation phase: On-boarding meetings with BRCiS CMU and relevant consortium members and staff in Nairobi and Mogadishu. Preparation of a short inception report outlining the primary and secondary information sources, assessment objectives, and key analytical questions to focus on; and refining the suggested assessment methods and tools for collecting and analyzing data.

Data Collection: The consultant will collect all the data related to the study area using scientific knowledge in particular Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and statistical data for the study area.

Desk Study: The consultant(s) is expected to conduct a desk study on reviewing the existing technical reports and data from various sources, i.e. government ministries/institutions, UN Agencies, NGOs, International research centers, and others. A review of technical reports on flood mitigation, and flood infrastructure in the river basin including their management would be encouraged.

Field Study: A field study to verify the secondary information from the existing documents/maps. The field study will be expected to validate information on river geomorphology or hydrogeomorphology, its floodplain characteristics, drainage canals, flooding depth, flood extent, and duration.

Stakeholder Consultation: In addition, the consultants will be expected to conduct stakeholders’ consultation at community/district/provincial, state and national levels. The stakeholder list will be coordinated with the Concern team and other BRCiS consortium members but should cover at least the following:

• Key informant interviews with local authorities and other participants within the catchment to identify the issues described in the scope of work.
• Focus group discussion with several local community groups.
• In-depth interviews with potential other stakeholders currently implementing activities in the Jubba River Delta (NGOs, UNs, etc).

Analysis, report writing: data analysis and validation of findings (including sharing preliminary findings and/or recommendations with BRCiS CMU and member representatives); report writing and incorporation of feedback.

Debriefing: a debriefing will be organized (online) to discuss the results and the recommendations with the BRCiS CMU, representatives of the other BRCiS member agencies, and Government Entities both State and Federal level.

External dissemination a dissemination workshop will be held with BRCiS Consortium relevant stakeholders (identified and contacted in cooperation with BRCiS) with the aim of creating awareness and knowledge of the flood mitigation options. Results of the technical analyses and modelling works will be presented. Audience for the dissemination workshop will be government ministries, local authorities, International and local NGOs.

DELIVERABLES

1. Inception report setting out the program of works, timetable, detailed methodology, and tools and reviewing, defining, and agreeing on the final detailed objectives (to be approved by Concern before starting data collection).
2. PowerPoint presentation containing findings and recommendations to be presented to Concern and other BRCiS partners during the de-brief workshop (online)
3. Draft assessment report for review by BRCiS CMU, Concern, and Government Entities.
4. A technical report detailing the flood risk analysis considering hydro-meteorological network, land use, geomorphological features, vulnerabilities, etc., and providing recommendations for flood risk mitigations and preparedness measures at the city level, as outlined in the study priorities. A first draft of the report will be submitted for discussion before the final version. A validation meeting will take place to validate the final output. The report will have to detail all the aspects specified below:
   1. Methodologies, a working plan, and a detailed budget validated by Concern and the BRCiS CMU before the study.
   2. A detailed desk study of existing reports and data and/or collect and analyze data of the Jubba River delta.
   3. Analysis of hydrological conditions and future trends in rainfall patterns within the catchment and assess how these might influence future flow conditions in the Jubba River delta and its respective floodplain.
   4. Estimation of flooding events and their management within the available data (hydro-meteorology, the elevation of both river and floodplain, water utilization, etc.), and elaboration on flood risk modelling for the respective issues, also considering predicted implications of climate change. The data to be used for estimating the probability of flood event should not be limited to Somalia. If possible, data from Ethiopia will be significantly helpful.
   5. Analysis of the grey infrastructures structural integrity as economic flood risk elements based on technical analysis and historic damages reported.
   6. Recommendations on early warning system improvement for the Bardere and other river watershed communities.
   7. Recommendations on identification and prioritization for flood mitigation measures for Bardere taking into account Nature-based solutions (identifying location, roles, and responsibilities sharing, and a suggested methodology to undertake these flood mitigation measures).

PROFILE, EXPERIENCE AND REQUIRED SKILLS

An appropriate profile for this study would be to have expertise in hydrology, disaster risk reduction, and flood management issues and to be aware of the Somali context, more particularly. Applications that demonstrate strong collaboration between international firms and Somali firms are welcomed.

• Firms should present a team of qualified personnel that includes at minimum the below-mentioned profiles (not an exhaustive list; one candidate may fulfil more than one profile).
  • Expert in hydrological assessments and flood risk management
  • Expert in agroforestry, Resilience Design, and/or nature-based solutions
  • Expert in Somali context

The level of effort (in days or % of time) for all positions and the consulting team’s management structure should be clearly specified in the proposal.

• Advanced university degree in engineering, geosciences, or similar
• Experience in hydrology / or coastal/marine field studies essential
• Knowledge of flood risk management issues, including Nature-based Solutions to flood risk reduction
• Knowledge of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and knowledge of conducting drone mapping and or accessing fine-scale satellite imagery
• Good knowledge of the Somali context
• Good knowledge of disaster risk management in general
• Experience in the international context is essential
• Experience in development or humanitarian work would be a plus
• Previous experience in Somalia and personal knowledge of the Somali context (mix-sex team, e.g. especially for the primary data collection) are an asset.
• Consultancy firm experience: The firm should demonstrate that it has undertaken at least two similar assignments. It should provide evidences.

  Applications shall include the following:

• One technical offer detailing the proposed assessment framework, methods, and the assessment team, work plan and schedule, and personnel in the technical team (max. 20 pages)
• One financial offer (Excel) detailing the costs of the assignment (including transport costs, enumerators costs etc.) in USD.
• CV of the of team leader and team members if applicable demonstrating relevant experience / knowledge and alignment with the specification above. Include certificates of key experts (max 4 pages).
• Please include feasible start date and mention where you found this posting. Preference will be given to applicants who submit a sample of relevant original work.
• Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.