climate Article Multihazard Risk Assessment for Planning with Climate in the Dosso Region, Niger Maurizio Tiepolo 1,* ID , Maurizio Bacci 1,2 ID and Sarah Braccio 1 1 Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST), Politecnico and University of Turin, Viale G. Mattioli 39, 10125 Torino, Italy;
[email protected] or
[email protected] (M.B.);
[email protected] (S.B.) 2 Ibimet CNR, Via G. Caproni 8, 50145 Florence, Italy * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +39-011-090-7491 Received: 13 July 2018; Accepted: 6 August 2018; Published: 8 August 2018 Abstract: International aid for climate change adaptation in West Africa is increasing exponentially, but our understanding of hydroclimatic risks is not keeping pace with that increase. The aim of this article is to develop a multihazard risk assessment on a regional scale based on existing information that can be repeated over time and space and that will be useful during decision-making processes. This assessment was conducted in Dosso (Niger), the region most hit by flooding in the country, with the highest hydroclimatic risk in West Africa. The assessment characterizes the climate, identifies hazards, and analyzes multihazard risk over the 2011–2017 period for each of the region’s 43 municipalities. Hazards and risk level are compared to the intervention areas and actions of 6 municipal development plans and 12 adaptation and resilience projects. Over the past seven years, heavy precipitation and dry spells in the Dosso region have been more frequent than during the previous 30-year period. As many as 606 settlements have been repeatedly hit and 15 municipalities are classified as being at elevated-to-severe multihazard risk.