Vida Akyeampong

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)

Hi, I'm Vida Akyeampong, a PhD student at the Regional Water and Environmental Sanitation Centre, KNUST - Kumasi.


I'm interested in studying water and its journey from the atmosphere to the earth. I am a member of the hydrological team working on the Furiflood project in Kumasi, with Prof. Adjei and Prof. Amekudzi as my supervisors. My work in the Furiflood project is linked to work packages 1, 2, and 3, with a particular focus on the risks and hazards associated with flooding in an urban catchment, using Kumasi as a case study. Hydrodynamic modeling of the watershed to predict the basin's reaction to precipitation will be investigated as part of my PhD research.


When I finished my undergraduate studies in civil engineering, I developed an interest in water. To enhance my skills, I pursued a master's degree in Water Resources Engineering and Management at KNUST. Hydrology provides a wide range of opportunities to apply scientific knowledge and mathematical principles to water-related problems, such as floods, which the furiflood project is addressing. Many people believe that hydrology is only about rainfall and its measurements, but the dynamics involved in the hydrological cycle provide a broad understanding of how to manage problems that arise concerning precipitation.

Floods in cities cause significant disruption to life and destructon of properties. Extremes in precipitation, as well as the ongoing growth of urban areas, heighten the risks and hazards that residents in these places confront. Floods are primarily influenced by the characteristics of the watershed in which they occur in that changes in hydrological factors have distinct effects on different basins. As a result, it is expected that a local scale analysis of an urban catchment will provide an extensive knowledge about the processes occurring in it. It is hoped that the Furiflood project will serve as a stepping stone toward a better understanding of past flooding events as well as those that are expected to occur in the near future.