On June 3rd, 2015 in Accra, a heavy rainfall in Ghana’s capital led to flooding. The main contributing factors were choked gutters that blocked drainage systems and the poor condition of the Odaw river, which has been heavily polluted and silted over time. Over 200 people lost their lives due to a petrol station explosion during the flood.
Our key contributions to shaping climate futures through “Restoring Rivers, Reviving Communities” lie in reimagining urban development that centers nature, equity, and resilience. By researching how degraded river systems in Africa’s cities can be revitalized, how ecological restoration can also improve public health, local livelihoods, and climate adaptation are being explored. This work opens pathways for community-driven, climate-smart urban planning that aligns with both environmental justice and sustainable development goals. What if restoring a river could also restore a city’s hope?
Really relevant and important research idea! As pointed out by previous comments, make sure you know which aspect you want to specifically address, and how that could manifest on a poster. Do you want to ask your own question (the last one in the post), or is this about the Odaw river event as a whole? Try to narrow down your problem.
You describe an interesting and relevant area of research, and urban planning, and a suitable poster topic. It is not clear to me, however, what the status of this suggestion is. Is “Restoring Rivers, Reviving communities” an already existing project, which you want to study and describe on your poster? Also, you need to give a source for your introductory report on the Odaw river incident.
Restoration of urban rivers is a suitabel topc for the poster task. There are many questions that could be investigated by scientific research. And it is interestingti think about how to communicate and implement river restoration strategies.
However, I do not fully understand your case example: How does pollution of the Odaw river lead to higher flood risks? I changing the river to near-natural conditions reducing flood risks? How is equity related to the problem of blocked drainage systems and degraded river systems? Could there be also negative side-effects of eological river restoration? What are the pros and cons?
This sounds like a super interesting topic! I like how you connect it to a specific event showing the need for action. Here are some questions that came to my mind when reading it: Do you plan to include existing research on the causes and impacts of the flooding in your poster? Or is this more the initial motivation, and you plan to mainly explore different management and adaption strategies? And is there research concerning such approaches specificly in Accra? Or would you look for papers on the general topic, and then apply it to the situation in Accra?
I am excited to see your poster and hear of what you found out!