Ngaoundéré faces the risks of flooding and erosion which increase in proportion to its anarchic urbanization (Tchotsoua & Bonvallot, 1999). The flood-prone areas susceptible to landslides of rock boulders and water erosion are partly squatted by the populations who build houses made of temporary materials. Abundant rainfall (between 1,300 and 1,500 mm), concentrated during the rainy season, accelerates flooding and erosion on the hillsides.
Given its location near the Sahel, the town of Ngaoundéré is thus very exposed to the climate change which affect human and natural systems in many ways, disrupting food and water supply, destroying infrastructure, flooding homes, changing infectious disease vectors, eroding livelihoods, and decreasing economic opportunities, especially in agriculture (The World Bank Group, 2019).
The success of efforts to overcome these effects of climate change is often linked to collaboration among stakeholders in exploiting risk information to take meaningful action. It is in this context that the Open City project in Africa is taking place, of which Ngaoundéré is one of the pilot towns.
One of the flagship products of the project is the production of the cartographic Atlas for the resilience and the adaptation to these natural phenomenon more and more exacerbated by the man.
Resilience and adaptation are two interrelated responses to the various impacts of climate change on people, communities, ecosystems, infrastructure, as well as the economy, industry and businesses. Resilience is the amount or size of impacts that a sector can withstand before undergoing a complete transformation. Climate change adaptation refers to any activity that reduces the negative effects of climate change or that takes advantage of new opportunities arising from climate change.
The atlas, in soft and hard copies, in French and English, presents the geographical, human and socio-economic frameworks before characterizing and analyzing the flood and geomorphological risks in the neighborhoods. Each analysis is accompanied by recommendations previously discussed with the populations of each neighborhood.