The hydrological modelling techniques using soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model will help Nigeria to forecast flooding, an official of the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NHSA) has said.
Umar Magashi, deputy director at NHSA, made the disclosure while speaking in Lagos on Thursday in Abuja. He said that to learn the technique, the agency would be participating in a regional workshop on hydrological modelling for flood foresting from Dec. 21 to Dec. 27 in
Niamey.
“The workshop aims to strengthen the capacity of the participants on flood risk management using the hydrological modelling- SWAT. It is expected at the end of this workshop that participants take ownership of the SWAT model and make it a reference tool for flood and water resources monitoring in West Africa,?? he said.
Magashi said that the agency had been using hydrological modelling to forecast floods while the Nigerian Metrological Agency (NIMET) used atmospheric modelling to do same.
“We use these techniques to forecast flooding just like what we did early this year; we predicted the flood and it happened the way we predicted it,? he said and assured there were many tools that could be used to predict flooding and that the agency would need more tools to carry out water resources assessment.
