Channelling a safer future: How Georgia is engineering a climate-resilient future, safe from floods

The floods that ravaged Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, in June 2015 unfolded with sudden and devastating force. 

For several hours, torrential rain battered the city. As the rain intensified, the River Vere, which flows through the heart of the city, swelled rapidly. Finally, the water breached its banks, triggering widespread chaos.

The floodwaters swept through the streets, inundating homes and submerging vehicles, the owners powerless to stop them. Approximately 100mm of rainfall fell over the river basin in only two hours, around a fifth of the annual average.

The disaster took at least 19 lives, leaving three people missing, 67 families displaced, and around 700 people directly affected. The economic toll was also high: US$24.3 million in physical damage and $4.37 million in financial losses, mainly within the housing, transportation, water management sectors.

While the water eventually subsided, left behind was a city in mourning and searching for answers. 

Following the flood that struck on June 13, Tbilisi witnessed an unprecedented display of unity, civic duty, and teamwork as people joined together to clean up their city. Photo: UNDP Georgia

Georgia’s ambitious programme to cut risk and enhance flood preparedness

The unprecedented scale of the 2015 floods served as a wake-up call to the authorities and communities alike, prompting re-evaluation of flood preparedness and the need for greater measures to mitigate future disasters – particularly in the context of more frequent extreme weather driven by climate change.

Attention turned to bolstering protective infrastructure – constructing flood defences, improving drainage systems, and bolstering coastal protection measures – but also to putting in place comprehensive policies focused on disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, ensuring more sustainable land-use, and the mainstreaming of climate change considerations across development planning. 

Special attention has also been paid to involving communities in resilience-building, empowering them to take a leading role in both decision-making and implementation.

As well as measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Georgia’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), shared with the international community in 2021, highlights the need for adaptation across economic sectors, ecosystems and other natural resources. It also acknowledges the disproportionate vulnerability of groups including children and adolescents, women, elderly persons, and persons with disabilities.

Safeguarding 1.7 million lives

In 2019, the government with support from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) launched a comprehensive programme aimed at protecting more than 40 percent of the country’s population – 1.7 million people – from hydrometeorological hazards.

Led by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture – with financial contributions from the Georgian government, Green Climate Fund (GCF), Swiss government and Swedish government – the $74 million programme covers almost all disaster risk zones in Georgia’s 11 biggest river basins, and focuses on establishing a nationwide multi-hazard early warning system, facilitating risk-informed local action, and building flood-protective infrastructure. 

Halfway through 7-year programme (2018 – 2025), much has already been achieved. 

The programme builds on pioneering work carried out between 2012 and 2017 along the Rioni River, the country’s biggest and most flood-prone water body. This US$5 million pilot, financed by the Adaptation Fund and implemented by UNDP, created safer conditions for more than 200,000 residents and provided “proof of concept” for the new, much larger programme. Photo: Vladimir Valishvili/UNDP

Watching and knowing what’s to come

One of the essential building blocks to reducing the risk of hydrometeorological disasters is climate information – armed with data, the authorities and communities can better anticipate, prepare for, and respond before disaster strikes.

To this end, the programme has been working to strengthen the country’s outdated observational network. To date, more than 140 pieces of high-tech monitoring equipment – measuring wind speed, temperature variability, rain intensity, soil humidity and rising water levels – have been purchased and have begun to be installed, forming the basis of a new national multi-hazard early warning system.

51 new automatic weather stations are now in place across Georgia, providing round-the-clock monitoring to help forecast and prevent climate-induced disasters. Photos: UNDP Georgia

The programme has also been investing in producing hazard and risk maps. Maps of seven hazards – floods, landslides, mudflows, snow avalanches, strong winds, hails, and droughts – have been prepared for the main river basins of Western Georgia (Kintrishi, Natanebi, Supsa, Enguri, Rioni, Khobistskali, Chorokhi-Ajaristskali). Risk assessment of these rivers is being carried out based on international best practice, adapted to the Georgian context, with surveys for the rest of the country planned for 2024. 

A demo version of a centralized hazard and risk information system has been developed and tested within a cloud environment, while a flood forecasting platform has been developed for five river basins Supsa, Natanebi, Kintrisi, Rioni, Khobistskali, with an additional three underway. Currently in testing mode, the platform is expected to be launched by the end of the programme.  

Enhancement of agromet advisory services is ongoing, including wide consultation with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Rural Development Agency, Farmers’ Association, local farmers and other stakeholders and training of various government institutions such as the National Environmental Agency, Emergency Management Service, Roads Department under the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia continues. More than 32o staff have already been trained.  

A national e-Library accessible to the general public and national governmental agencies will provide information about hazards and risks within 11 river basins. 

Stone by stone

While efforts have been underway to secure reliable information on climate-induced hazards, work has also been underway constructing flood protection in 15 high-risk locations, six of them along the River Rioni – the country’s second largest river. 

Taken together, the budget for the works is 30 million Georgian lari (GEL), or approximately US$11,250,000. 

The structural measures will directly protect people, property, and infrastructure from loss and damage due to floods.

Engaging communities

Finally, the programme has been carrying out a comprehensive set of initiatives to raise public awareness and build national and local capacity climate-related disaster preparedness, response, and early warning systems.

A Green Scholarships programme is providing Master's students with financial support to encourage them to build a career in ecology, geology, hydrology, GIS technologies, environmental protection, and development where there is a shortage of qualified workers. 

More than 110 students between the ages of 14 and 17 have attended “Climate Ambassador” Green Camps to learn about climate change, risk reduction and management of climate-induced disasters as well as forestry, air quality and biodiversity. Around 40 young volunteers have been mobilised to form EcoClubs in their schools and to educate their peers on environmental topics.

The "Keep the Weather Stations Safe!" information campaign has been spreading awareness to students, teachers, the media, and municipality authorities about hydro-meteorological monitoring and showcasing the capabilities of the newly installed monitoring stations.

The "Keep the Weather Station Safe" campaign has been travelling the country to raise awareness among students, teachers, the media, and municipality authorities. Photo: Gela Bedianashvili/UNDP

Young Climate Ambassadors visit a meteorological monitoring station in Bakuriani to learn how to use science and technology to forecast climate-induced disasters like floods or hailstorms. Credit: Nino Zedginidze/UNDP

The programme has also been assisting communities to implement their own solutions to better protect themselves from floods and other extreme weather events.

Last year, for example, local climate activist, Shorena Chapurishvili and community-based organization “Kakheti” were provided with a grant US$4,000 to establish a community-led rapid response squad that will serve three villages alongside the river Zemo Khodashnis Khevi, informing people on how stay safe before, during, and after a flood.

Looking ahead

In the wake of the devastating floods that struck Tbilisi in 2015, Georgia is taking crucial steps to lay the foundations for a safer, climate-resilient future. 

The essentials: more reliable climate information, protective infrastructure, and improved community awareness.

Each as important as each other, all of them interconnected.

"It may not be possible to erase the risk of floods and other climate-induced disasters. Yet, climate-smart investments can help us build a society where people and their properties are better protected from the devastating effects of climate change." – UNDP Resident Representative for Georgia, Nick Beresford