Lead institution:
Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, GmbH; Department of Marine and Fisheries Sciences, University of Ghana; Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies, University of Ghana – Germany and Ghana
The project “Mangroves as Nature-based Solutions to Coastal Hazards in Eastern Ghana” (MANCOGA) aims at developing decision support tools for mitigating erosion and flooding along Ghana’s east coast.
Coastal hazards such as erosion, flooding, and pollution are major problems globally. Multiple factors hamper managing and improving these issues, for example the lack of data, insufficient communication structures among stakeholders and missing pathways to informed decisions with sustained impact.
MANCOGA aims at using mangroves to develop a robust and participatory Nature-based Solution (NbS) to reduce coastal hazards such as climate-related flooding, erosion, and pollution. The ultimate goal of the project is to increase community resilience and affluence.
To achieve its objectives, MANCOGA, using a co-design approach, collaborates with multilevel stakeholders to collect and analyze existing data, and identify gaps and gap-filling mechanisms. The team will adapt a Digital Twin to the conditions along the eastern coast of Ghana that can be used for What/If scenarios to support new products and on-demand models assessing and predicting the role of mangroves as NbS to coastal hazards.
Furthermore, a digital toolbox will facilitate the collection, analysis and dissemination of archived and new observational data for knowledge-based decision-making via intuitive interactive tools for data summary, visualization, and presentation.
This Project is hosted by the Ocean Decade Programme CoastPredict
Start Date: 2022
End Date: 2025
Lead Contacts: Holger Brix (holger.brix@hereon.de), Edem Mahu (emahu@ug.edu.gh) and Kwasi Appeaning Addo (KAppeaningAddo@ug.edu.gh)