Itai Muzondo
GWERU: When a natural disaster strikes—mostly floods—Midlands Province has been devasted as homes and infrastructure are often destroyed.
Families lose shelter, businesses are forced to shutter, and entire neighborhoods are upended.
The road to recovery is long and arduous, often requiring months or years of effort from governments, contractors, and emergency responders.
With disasters increasing in frequency and intensity, the demands on relief teams have never been higher.
It’s in this landscape of destruction and rebuilding that the Urban Preparedness Project Phase II, implemented by the World Food Programme (WFP) and World Vision with funding from the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG-ECHO) is an invaluable ally.
From data collection to real-time damage assessments, drone mapping is set to transform the way government, state agencies and departments, and emergency management teams respond to natural disasters—helping communities rebuild faster and smarter.
The development come as a follow up to a 2024 Drone and Flood Mapping Stakeholder Meeting which as a result, Ascot (Gweru) was identified as a pilot area for the project implementation.
“Urban flooding poses a significant threat to vulnerable communities in Gweru. To enhance flood risk assessment and management, it is essential to develop a high-resolution hydraulic model capable of accuracy representing the area’s topography and hydrodynamics,” the WFP wrote.
Added experts mapping the location, “Drone mapping supports all phases of the disaster management cycle, not just in the immediate response and recovery stages but also in pre-emptive efforts to reduce disaster risk and readiness for potential threats”.
Gweru DDC Tarisai Mudadigwa also welcomed the development saying tracking and assisting flood victims has been made easier.
“This is a welcome development where we expect to evacuate and assist flood victims in time. This will be different from scenarios we used to assess the environment physically first while affected people continue being exposed to flood danger.
“The system will also help emergency teams to determine safe navigation paths for bringing in first responders and resources. These maps also help set up communication networks and classify damage severity to ensure the most critical areas receive aid first,” Mudadigwa said.
Meanwhile, drone mapping as has been used in countries like Mozambique has proven to be a transformative tool in disaster recovery, offering fast, detailed data for both immediate relief efforts and long-term rebuilding strategies.
Through advanced deliverables like orthomosaics, digital terrain models, and point clouds, contractors, emergency response agencies, and urban planners are equipped with the information they need to make swift, informed decisions that can save lives and rebuild communities faster.
Through the program, WFP is also strengthening the capacity of government institutions, enabling them to better prepare for and respond to future hazards.
