I am a UK-based flood risk specialist, and I have already screened all 260 districts of Ghana for river flooding and the whole 566 km coast for extreme sea levels. I can work for government agencies, district assemblies, NGOs, development partners and engineering firms, remotely or in-country.
How to read this: the orange districts stay in Ghana’s top 20 for modelled river flood damage to homes under all nine combinations of assumptions I tested. Grey does not mean safe. River flooding only; not an official priority list.
Hisham Nuhu is a UK-based flood and disaster risk specialist who has already built a national river flood screen of all 260 districts of Ghana and a screen of its coast. He worked at England’s Environment Agency from 2019 to 2025 and holds an MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management from the University of Oxford.
That is me. Flood risk work in Ghana is usually done by consulting firms, university teams and individual specialists, often inside a larger project. What I bring is a national picture that already exists, and six years of turning flood evidence into decisions in England: modelling a village river, issuing flood warnings on duty, advising on planning applications and helping councils fund flood schemes.
I work alone or inside a team. Some clients want a short, focused piece of analysis. Others need a hydrologist or flood risk specialist named in a bid.
I modelled river flood damage to homes and the people exposed in every district, then tested which priorities hold under nine combinations of assumptions. Thirteen districts stay in the national top 20 every time, most of them on the lower Volta and around Accra. I also screened the 566 km coast for extreme sea levels.
I call the thirteen the Act districts: Ningo/Prampram, Keta, South Tongu, Ketu South, Weija Gbawe, Ada East, Anloga, North Tongu, Ada West, Central Tongu, Shai Osudoku, Shama and Asuogyaman. Act means appraise first, with a local study and the communities affected. It does not mean stop building.
I checked the flood maps against the White Volta flood of September 2020, mapped by satellite. They matched well enough to use, and the test showed where the flood edge was uncertain, so I ran every result with a narrower and a wider edge as well.
I presented the results for discussion with the World Bank and am now sharing them with its Accra-based team. The same work produced prototype decision-support views that go from the national map down to the buildings at the flood edge in Weija Gbawe.
How to read this: orange marks the 13 Act districts. Switch to damage or people to see why they lead, and choose “Accra to Keta” to zoom in. Tap any district, or pick one from the list, to read its figures.
Modelled river flooding for all 260 districts. Damage is to homes and their contents; people are those living inside the modelled 1-in-100-year flood.
My independent consultancy (2025–26), also my Oxford MSc dissertation. Hazard: JRC global river flood hazard maps v2 (CC BY 4.0). Buildings: Google Open Buildings v3. People: WorldPop (CC BY 4.0). Boundaries: OCHA/HDX COD-AB (Ghana Statistical Service).
| District | Region | Damage to homes a year, GHS m (median) | People in the 1-in-100-year flood extent | National rank across 9 combinations | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ningo/Prampram | Greater Accra | 631.0 | 47,692 | 1st–3rd | Act |
| Keta Municipal | Volta | 598.6 | 112,294 | 1st–3rd | Act |
| South Tongu | Volta | 476.4 | 89,113 | 2nd–4th | Act |
| Ketu South | Volta | 421.3 | 101,768 | 4th–6th | Act |
| Weija Gbawe Municipal | Greater Accra | 414.4 | 51,164 | 1st–11th | Act |
| Ada East | Greater Accra | 371.6 | 63,149 | 5th–6th | Act |
| Anloga | Volta | 369.6 | 63,481 | 4th–7th | Act |
| North Tongu | Volta | 307.4 | 66,672 | 7th–8th | Act |
| Ada West | Greater Accra | 130.6 | 42,492 | 8th–12th | Act |
| Central Tongu | Volta | 107.8 | 27,705 | 9th–17th | Act |
| Shai Osudoku | Greater Accra | 101.3 | 17,392 | 10th–15th | Act |
| Shama | Western | 97.9 | 23,030 | 9th–20th | Act |
| Asuogyaman | Eastern | 70.9 | 15,552 | 13th–19th | Act |
The full list, with the 13 districts to investigate next: flood-prone districts in Ghana. Who lives in the flood zone: people at risk of flooding in Ghana.
Six kinds of work: district and national flood risk screening, river hydrology and 1D–2D modelling, coastal extreme sea levels and inundation screening, risk information for early warning, option appraisal and funding, and decision-support views with training for the people who will use them.
Screening
Which districts or sub-basins to look at first, for damage and for people, and which priorities still hold when the assumptions change.
Evidence: flood-prone districts in Ghana.
MoreModelling
Design flows from short or patchy records, and a river model checked against a flood that really happened.
Evidence: Hamstall Ridware. The hydrology was entirely my work; I built the 1D–2D model jointly with an Environment Agency modelling colleague.
MoreCoast
How high the sea can reach once tide, storm surge and waves add up, and which low ground connects to it, today and with sea-level rise.
Evidence: Ghana coastal flooding and sea-level rise, a static screening with provisional forcing, not a 2D model.
MoreEarly warning
The flood sizes, flood extents and counts of people a warning service needs before it sets its thresholds.
Evidence: the White Volta 2020 check, and ten incident weeks as a Flood Warning Duty Officer in south-east London.
MoreAppraisal and funding
Which option is worth paying for, and how to bring the money together from more than one source.
Evidence: my own appraisal at Hamstall, and three council-led schemes in London funded in partnership, together est. over US$5.2m.
MoreDecision support
From 260 districts down to the buildings at the flood edge, with the uncertainty beside each figure, for the people who decide.
Evidence: prototype dashboard views for Ghana and for Weija Gbawe.
MoreYes. The national screen says where to look; a detailed model says what happens there. For a river or town I can build the hydrology and a linked 1D–2D model at 10–30 m. For the coast, the next stage after my screen is a 2D model at the priority sites, which has not yet been run.
At Hamstall Ridware in Staffordshire I did exactly this for one village below a reservoir. The hydrology was entirely my work, I built the 1D–2D model jointly with an Environment Agency modelling colleague, and I then appraised the options myself. The farmers built an earth bund.
In Ghana the screen points first to the lower Volta, the Keta lagoon and the Densu delta at Weija. A study there would need what the national maps leave out: releases from the Akosombo and Weija dams, lagoon outlets, surveyed floor levels and the communities’ own flood records.
More on these places: lower Volta flood risk and Ghana’s coast to 2050.
Both. I do the analysis remotely from the UK, and travel for the parts that need people in the room: scoping meetings, field visits, community discussions, workshops and training. An assignment usually runs in five steps, from agreeing the decision to handing the results to the people who will use them.
Scope: start from the decision
Which places, which decision, what data already exists. In Ghana the decision was where to look first, so a national screen was the right tool, not a detailed model.
Screen: find where to look
A district or basin screen from open data, tested under different assumptions. 260 districts, nine combinations, 13 that hold every time.
Model: see what happens there
A detailed model where the screen points, checked against a real flood. Hamstall Ridware: my hydrology and a 1D–2D model built jointly with an Environment Agency colleague.
Decide: options and money
Options compared on one basis, with costs, benefits and who pays. My own appraisal at Hamstall: on one consistent basis an earth bund scores about 4.6. Separately, the farmers built a bund of their own.
Hand over: to the people who use it
Documentation, data in open formats and hands-on sessions. So far: two internal Environment Agency courses, for 10 and 3 colleagues.
How to read this: the steps light up in turn; tap or tab to any step to read it.
Yes, as an individual consultant or as a key expert in a firm’s team. I presented my Ghana results for discussion with the World Bank and am now sharing them with its Accra-based team. That work was independent consultancy, not a World Bank contract, and it is not an official priority list.
For a bid, send me the terms of reference and the expert positions. I will tell you which ones my record fits, and send a CV in the format the client asks for, including World Bank and UN P11 formats.
The work fits the frameworks these projects report against. A national screen is “understanding disaster risk”, the first priority of the Sendai Framework, and disaster risk knowledge, the first pillar of Early Warnings for All.
Yes, as part of an assignment. I would build the sessions around the agency’s own data and decisions: reading a flood map and its uncertainty, using return periods, and updating a district screen when new data arrives. My training record so far is two internal Environment Agency courses, for 10 and 3 colleagues.
Send the terms of reference, or a one-page brief if there are none yet. I will reply with how my experience fits each task, when I am available and a CV in the format your procurement needs. If the scope is still open, a short call usually settles it.
A useful brief answers five questions:
Good flood evidence says what it covers. These are the edges of mine.
A screen is a first stepA national or district screen says where to look. It does not say what to build, or whether one house will flood.
River flooding onlyThe national screen models rivers. Drainage flooding in towns, which causes most of central Accra’s floods, is outside it, so a zero there is not “no risk”.
The coast is a screenStatic connected-inundation screening with provisional forcing. No 2D coastal model has been run for Ghana yet.
Prototype dashboardsThe decision-support views are prototypes, not a live service.
Not officialIndependent consultancy, presented for discussion with the World Bank. Not an official priority list of the Government of Ghana or the World Bank.
No. I am based in the UK, never more than an hour from Accra time. I do the analysis remotely and travel to Ghana for the parts of an assignment that need it: field visits, workshops and training.
It depends on the area, the data and the decision, so I agree a daily rate or a fixed fee after a short scoping call. For scale, my Ghana river screen would cost an est. US$90k if contracted externally, and the coastal screen an est. US$65k (benchmarked against comparable work).
No. It is my independent analysis, also my Oxford MSc dissertation, presented for discussion with the World Bank. It is not an official priority list of the Government of Ghana, NADMO or the World Bank. How the list was made.
Yes. Every input is open global data: JRC flood maps, Google Open Buildings, WorldPop and night-time lights. The numbers do not transfer between countries, but the method does, including the test of which priorities hold. Burkina Faso and Togo share the Volta basin with Ghana.
For river models, Flood Modeller and TUFLOW, in 1D and 2D; HEC-RAS 2D or SFINCS where a project calls for them. For national and coastal screening, Python, GDAL and QGIS, built on open data so a Ghanaian team could rerun it.
Yes. I can check the hydrology, the model build and how it was checked against observed floods, and say plainly whether the results support the decision they are being used for.
Work with me
Send the terms of reference or a short brief. I will reply with how my record fits, when I can start and a CV in your procurement’s format. Remote from the UK, or in-country when the work needs it.