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With more and more people moving to cities, informal settlements are expected to grow. When floods hit these unplanned places, it can be disastrous, as we often don’t know much about them. Crucial questions often remain difficult to answer, like how many people live there, what are the buildings made of, and could they withstand a flood?

In the township of Alexandra in Johannesburg, the ´óÏó´«Ã½â€™s Nomsa Maseko visits a project using drones and artificial intelligence to shed some light on the situation, helping authorities prevent the worst impacts of flooding. And in Porto Alegre in the south of Brazil, we hear how an innovative digital map helped the emergency response – and will soon be available to all for free across the world.

Featuring:
Rodrigo Rocha, Partner at the Responsive Cities Institute, Porto Alegre
Dr Caroline Gevaert, Associate Professor at the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente
Nomsa Maseko, the ´óÏó´«Ã½â€™s South Africa Correspondent

Email us: theclimatequestion@bbc.com

Presenter: Jordan Dunbar
Producer: Osman Iqbal
Researcher: Octavia Woodward
Editors: Sophie Eastaugh and Simon Watts
Sound designer: Tom Brignell
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown