Lufilya River Morphology and Flood Risk Assessment for Strengthening Anticipatory Action Framework in Malawi

Lufilya River Morphology and Flood Risk Assessment for Strengthening Anticipatory Action Framework in Malawi | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Lufilya River Morphology and Flood Risk Assessment for Strengthening Anticipatory Action Framework in Malawi Isaac Kadono Mwalwimba, Cosmo Ngongondo, Vincent Msadala, Tamara Nthara, and 6 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8402028/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Flooding, exacerbated by river morphology affects many communities in the surrounding river systems of Malawi. Yet, there is a lack of understanding of the contribution of river morphological changes to strengthen anticipatory action, aimed at mitigating flood risks, improving knowledge and enhancing capacity of actors and institutions to implement evidenced-based proactive strategies in river flood risk management. A river morphology study was conducted in Lufilya river of Karonga District in Malawi to: ( 1 ) determine the river processes and associated flood risks in the watershed, ( 2 ) evaluate the response of the river to past flood control efforts and other river management activities, and ( 3 ) assess the alternative flood control measures that could effectively reduce flood risks and vulnerabilities. This study applied a community-based participatory assessment approach using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings show that flood risks in the surrounding communities are largely triggered by the heterogeneity of Lufilya river channel. This study established that the river morphological adjustments contribute to the reduction of agricultural land of about 0.3868km 2 , lowering food production to people who largely depend on farming as a source of livelihoods. The results also show that human occupancy and social behaviour (i.e. settlement location and cultural myths), compounded by existing gaps in transformational, incremental and coping strategies have affected both past and alternative efforts of flood control mechanisms. The study concludes that the dynamic nature of the Lufilya River reflects ongoing morphological adjustments to climate change and human activities. It is therefore significant that stakeholder concerned with anticipatory action targeting flood hazards and its triggers, should ensure a proper management of Lufilya river catchment, including establishing integrated flood risk management measures to reduce risk and vulnerability. River Morphology Flood Risk Anticipatory Action Lufilya Malawi Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8402028","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":576515493,"identity":"a2ad34a4-c086-4ad1-a540-b22dcd8f7915","order_by":0,"name":"Isaac Kadono 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Malawi","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"River Morphology, Flood Risk, Anticipatory Action, Lufilya, Malawi","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8402028/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8402028/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eFlooding, exacerbated by river morphology affects many communities in the surrounding river systems of Malawi. Yet, there is a lack of understanding of the contribution of river morphological changes to strengthen anticipatory action, aimed at mitigating flood risks, improving knowledge and enhancing capacity of actors and institutions to implement evidenced-based proactive strategies in river flood risk management. A river morphology study was conducted in Lufilya river of Karonga District in Malawi to: (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e) determine the river processes and associated flood risks in the watershed, (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e) evaluate the response of the river to past flood control efforts and other river management activities, and (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e) assess the alternative flood control measures that could effectively reduce flood risks and vulnerabilities. This study applied a community-based participatory assessment approach using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings show that flood risks in the surrounding communities are largely triggered by the heterogeneity of Lufilya river channel. This study established that the river morphological adjustments contribute to the reduction of agricultural land of about 0.3868km\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e, lowering food production to people who largely depend on farming as a source of livelihoods. The results also show that human occupancy and social behaviour (i.e. settlement location and cultural myths), compounded by existing gaps in transformational, incremental and coping strategies have affected both past and alternative efforts of flood control mechanisms. The study concludes that the dynamic nature of the Lufilya River reflects ongoing morphological adjustments to climate change and human activities. It is therefore significant that stakeholder concerned with anticipatory action targeting flood hazards and its triggers, should ensure a proper management of Lufilya river catchment, including establishing integrated flood risk management measures to reduce risk and vulnerability.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Lufilya River Morphology and Flood Risk Assessment for Strengthening Anticipatory Action Framework in Malawi","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-01-20 11:10:12","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8402028/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"6c2b7056-0f0a-41f8-ac9c-2e6a74aa0df7","owner":[],"postedDate":"January 20th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-03-09T06:25:27+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-01-20 11:10:12","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8402028","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8402028","identity":"rs-8402028","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}