Faith Mitheu

Areas of interest

Floods
Livelihoods
Resilience
Local community
Socio-economic

Research centres and groups

Research projects

A model for impact-based flood early warning in Uganda

Climate variability and shocks for example floods and drought continue to threaten the various livelihood systems. These shocks reduce the functioning of the agro-ecological based livelihoods leading to economic losses.

Developing countries are envisaged to be more affected due to various factors such as low coping capacity, poor governance, over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture and limited resources among others. with increasing climate instability, being able and prepared to proactively deal with the hazards and their impacts on livelihoods is important particularly for the vulnerable communities.

This research aims to improve the community resilience on flood risks by providing holistic approaches for livelihood-based flood impact forecasting and risk assessments. The research is part of the NIMFRU and FATHUM projects funded through the NERC/DFID under the SHEAR-studentship Cohort (SSC).

Supervisors:

Professor Rosalind Cornforth (Walker Institute, University of Reading)
Dr Elisabeth Stephens (University of Reading)
Dr Elena Tarnavsky (University of Reading)
Dr Celia Petty (Evidence for Development, UK)

Contact:

Background

I hold a BSc in Agricultural Engineering from Egerton University Kenya and an MSc in Integrated Water Resources Management, majoring in hydrology from University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. I have several years of experience working in various organisations including Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) where I led activities on flood forecasting and monitoring and flood impact assessments in various countries in the East Africa region prior to commencing my PhD.

I have a special interest in the welfare of communities living under constant threat of weather-related shocks such as floods and my PhD research is geared towards helping such communities through development of information and data frameworks to guide the decisions on flood risks.