By Prosper Bazaanah, Sylvester Afram Boadi, Charlotte Norman, Frank Aggrey, Jacob Agyekum and Emmanuel Obuobie

Participatory approaches have gained prominence as needs-based and decentralization strategies have become central to sustainable development, adaptation and mitigation measures. One such approach is the participatory system mapping novel tool used by Oliver et al. (2023) for analyzing, linking and empowering citizen-led adaptation and resilience building towards systemic climate risks. In the Ghana part of the Black Volta Basin, perennial floods are a frequent feature, affecting lives, property, infrastructure, farmlands and ecosystems. The impacts of these perennial floods have been intensified by the changing climate in the Savannah agro-climatic zone. Efforts at building local level resilience are urgently required and these include empowering communities to take charge of their own adaptation interventions. To this end, in March 2024, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Water Research Institute (CSIR-WRI), in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) and the Water Resources Commission (WRC), and with funding from the African Union and European Union Commissions through the GMES and Africa programme Phase II and the “Sustainable Management of Wetlands and Floods for Strengthening Food Security and Ecosystem Resilience in West Africa – GDZHIAO” project organised a two-day workshop for communities in Nandom and Lawra Municipalities in the Black Volta Basin. The workshop brought together twenty-one participants from fourteen flood-prone communities – ten from Nandom and eleven from Lawra Municipalities.

The participatory system mapping approach in the form of a mapping exercise was used as a framework to guide residents to identify flood risks and related impact on their wellbeing as well as to identify current interventions they use and additional interventions they intend to use in the near and far futures. The mapping was first done on cards and later rebuilt with The Participatory System Mapper (PRSM), an open-source tool for mind-mapping and system visualization designed and written by Nigel Gilbert (https://prsm.uk/index.html#about). The first day of the workshop began with an introduction to the GDZHIAO project, a reflection on flood risk in the Black Volta Basin, and an overview of the participatory system mapping approach. The participatory system mapping approach was used to demonstrate in practice how climate change threats, such as regular flooding of a house (Figure 1) affects a supporting factor – for example, housing conditions (whether a home stays dry and comfortable or becomes damp and uninhabitable). The supporting factor in turn influences a primary factor, which in this context is the overall health, wellbeing, and livelihoods of individuals, households, and the wider community.

                                                                                     
Figure 1: Linking flood hazards to supporting & primary factors

During the workshop, participants were put into two groups of ten and eleven people and were guided by facilitators to use cards, sticky notes and markers to visually map their own individual, household and community experiences related to flood. The process began with the facilitators introducing the participants to the concept of “primary factors” as the most important desires of every individual, household or community and include health, well-being, and livelihoods (Figure 1). However, primary factors are affected directly or indirectly by “supporting factors” such as food, income, mental health and education. At this stage, participants were invited to propose their own primary factors or adapt those listed by the facilitators. They were also invited to identify supporting factors that affect their chosen primary factor and to link them to the primary factor (Figure 2). Once the chain of impacts was mapped, the discussion moved to threats that affect supporting and primary factors. The participants identified and listed the specific flood-related threats they experience (daily and seasonally) and placed them on the map. They then examined the supporting factors that these threats impact, for example, on the physical condition of their housing. If a home becomes damp, flooded, or structurally weakened, it affects comfort, safety, and the ability to store food or protect belongings (supporting factors). Next, the participants linked these supporting factors to primary factors, which represent the broader, more fundamental aspects of everyday life that matter most, such as the health, wellbeing, and livelihoods of themselves, their households, and communities. For example, the participants linked blocked drainage channel to both health (due to water-borne diseases) and income (due to damage to markets or farmland). The linkages helped them understand that the impacts of flooding go beyond immediate property damage to affect long-term economic stability, community health, and even social cohesion.

Once all the chain of impacts were identified and mapped, they brainstormed on interventions — practical actions like installing flood barriers for homes and farmlands – to either break or lessen the chain of negative impacts (Figure 1). The participants identified interventions ranging from low-cost, household-level solutions like sourcing flood barriers for doors, creating drainage canals through farmlands, to community-level initiatives such as improving drainage systems or reinforcing riverbanks via tree planting (revegetation).

Each link in the chain – from the primary factor, secondary factors, threats to interventions were discussed and validated by the group and later presented by a volunteer from each group to the larger plenary for comparison, collective learning and knowledge exchange among the communities. This visual and participatory approach helped the participants to see not just the immediate damage caused by floods but also enabled them to make connections with the deeper ripple effects of flood, enabling them to prioritise their individual, household and community actions to ensure they are more resilient to the impacts of flood.

Figure 2: Co-identification of flood risks and interventions with community members from the (a) Nandom and (b) Lawra Municipalities, while (c) depicts fully mapped flood risks and interventions in Nandom Municipality

On the second day of the workshop, participants revisited the list of interventions and adaptation measures they had identified on the first day and examined each one in detail. Working in groups, they assessed how practical each measure would be to implement, considering the resources, skills, and time required. They also discussed the potential benefits, such as reducing flood damage, protecting livelihoods, or improving community safety, and weighed these against possible trade-offs, including costs, labour demands, technical expertise required or the need to sacrifice other priorities. This open exchange allowed participants to compare experiences, share lessons from past actions, and refine their ideas into solutions that are both realistic and effective for their specific households and community contexts. The process ended with a collective agreement on priority actions that could be pursued immediately, as well as those requiring longer-term planning and collaboration among local actors and external partners.

Dr. Prosper Bazaanah is a Social Scientist with the Surface Water and Climate Change Division, CSIR–Water Research Institute, Accra-Ghana;

Dr. Sylvester Afram Boadi is a Geographer and Research Scientist with the Surface Water and Climate Change Division, CSIR–Water Research Institute, Accra-Ghana;

Charlotte Norman is the Director for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction, National Disaster Management Organisation, Accra-Ghana;

Frank Aggrey is the Deputy Director for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction, National Disaster Management Organisation, Accra-Ghana;

Dr. Jacob Agyekum is a Climate Expert and Research Scientist with the Surface Water and Climate Change Division, CSIR–Water Research Institute, Accra-Ghana; and

Ing. Dr. Emmanuel Obuobie is a Hydrologist, GDZHIAO Project Lead (CSIR–Ghana) and Head, Surface Water and Climate Change Division, CSIR–Water Research Institute, Accra

References
Oliver, T.H., Bazaanah, P., Da Costa, J. Deka, N., Dornelles, A.Z., Greenwell, M.P., Nagarajan, M., Narasimhan, K., Obuobie, E., Osei, M. A., Gilbert, N. (2023). Empowering citizen-led adaptation to systemic climate change risks. Nat. Clim. Chang. 13, 671-678 (2023), doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01712-6