PROBLEM

Large areas of sub-Saharan Africa comprise wetlands and flat terrain prone to flooding (Rebelo et al., 2010). Seasonal flooding here plays an important role in agriculture, fishing and pastoralist dynamics (Westra and De Wulf, 2005) but also presents risk as natural hazard (Tarhule, 2005). Uncertainty in future climate and the impact of human modification of the landscape challenge traditional development of these economic activities (Niang, et al., 2014) and the preparedness for hazarous floods (Tschakert et al., 2010). In an ongoing research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS, se