New research finds that flooding can affect food security for over 5.6 million people across several African nations. The work comes at a time when floods have also devastated Pakistan, India, and large parts of the European Union and the United States.
“Our findings show that floods can impact food security both immediately and in the months after the flood event,” says Connor Reed, a former New York University Center for Data Science graduate student and lead author on the study, “The impact of flooding on food security across Africa,” which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “In many flood events we assessed, there were substantial damages to infrastructure, croplands, and livestock, which compromised food production and access, as well as water resources and sanitation also critical to food security.”
In recent years, record rainfall and flooding have prompted increased attention to the ramifications for affected populations and pointed to the urgency for a greater understanding of the magnitude of their destruction, particularly on populations’ food needs.
Read More: New York University
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