OVERCOME – digital innOVation in climatE hazaRd early warning and related disease prevention for COMmunity capacity building and rEsilience

OVERCOME will establish a transnational consortium with multidisciplinary expertise for cross-sectoral collaborative research in creating innovative technological methodologies and applications, including observations/surveillance, Internet of Things, climate/weather forecasting, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics to strengthen our capacity in predicting the outbreaks of cholera and other water-related diseases. We will engage with stakeholders from academia, industry, governments, NGOs, coming from a wide range of sectors e.g. natural environment, health care, environment-economic, urban planning, utility services, disaster management, policy making, etc., and local communities in co-shaping the research questions and targeted outcomes. One example is that we hope to fill the gap between rainfall and runoff in cholera forecasting, as well as between floods and epidemiology. The team building and methodology defining in the first 12 months will enable the follow-up research in the second phase for delivering an ultimate holistic framework that supports these stakeholders in strategic planning and decision making to enhance societal resilience to climatic hazards. This will strengthen the capacity of vulnerable communities in minimising the negative impact of disasters, such as cholera, and associated health risks, which will improve country progress in addressing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

OVERCOME consortium includes world-leading organisations to develop state-of-the-art research plans that integrate digital innovations in natural hazard and risk predictions in order to develop intervention strategies for strengthening the resilience of vulnerable communities against climate hazards and health impacts, including cholera and other water-related diseases.

The partners from the UK, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe will contribute knowledge and skills in climate and meteorology, hydrology and water resources, flood forecasting, droughts, water quality, epidemiology and public health, smart technologies, data science, environmental science, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), risk communication, disaster management, social and policy sciences, and socio-economics. The collaboration will combine multidisciplinary knowledge to develop a novel holistic framework to forecast the impact of floods/droughts and associated disease outbreaks. OVERCOME also has strong support from global experts and local major stakeholders. The external partners will steer research direction throughout the project, contribute their complementary knowledge, and engage the team with additional partners through their strong international networking.

OVERCOME consortium will co-design an innovate holistic framework to help governments and local authorities in the partnering countries more accurately identify the timing and locations where the hazards and diseases, including cholera, will hit.