Flood risk management in Africa (Editorial)

The continent of Africa comprises 54 states, and its climatic conditions are incredibly diverse, ranging from equatorial to desert. Rainfall and river flows in Africa show high levels of variability across a range of spatial and temporal scales (Conway et al., 2009; Hamandawana, 2007; Laraque, Mahé, Orange, & Marieu, 2001; Sutcliffe & Knott, 1987). This poses several complex challenges for the management of floods on the continent. These range from estimating extreme flood flows in ungauged catchments in arid zones in north Africa and managing flood regimes in large, transboundary river basins such as the Niger and Zambezi to reducing the vulnerability to floods of the 238 million people in sub‐Saharan Africa who live in informal settlements (United Nation [UN], 2019).