Product Brief · Kampala, Uganda · 2026
Terrain Runoff Analysis & City Engineering. An AI-powered smart drainage intelligence platform for Kampala.
01Executive Summary
Kampala, Uganda faces a severe and growing urban flooding crisis. Roads overflow during heavy rains, infrastructure is damaged, and lives are lost: all due to an outdated and poorly understood drainage system.
TRACE is a zero-cost, open-source platform combining AI-driven 3D terrain modeling, real-time IoT sensor simulation, and smart drainage analysis to help city authorities understand, predict, and improve Kampala's drainage infrastructure. The platform is designed to be built entirely for free using Google Colab and open data sources, making it viable for teams with no budget.
02Problem Statement
Uganda: and Kampala in particular: suffers from chronic poor drainage. When heavy rainfall occurs, roads flood, properties are damaged, and transportation networks collapse. The root cause is not just the volume of rainfall, but the lack of intelligent infrastructure planning that accounts for Kampala's complex and hilly terrain.
03Recent Major Incidents (2024–2025)
Torrential rainfall killed at least 6–7 people including two minors. Areas affected: Clock Tower, Kawempe, Natete, Kamwokya, Northern Bypass, Banda, Kyambogo, Kinawataka, Sonde. The KCCA Executive Director called it a 'once-in-50-years storm' citing 80mm of rainfall: but experts noted flooding occurs with almost every significant downpour. The Nsobe river overflowed; hundreds of travelers stranded; businesses shut down.
The Independent Uganda · GDACS · Daily Monitor, March 26–30, 2025
Heavy rains triggered landslides across six villages in Bulambuli District, 280km from Kampala. At least 20 confirmed dead; 113 reported missing. 40 homes buried under mud, 125 destroyed. The Sironko–Kapchorwa and Muyembe–Nakapiripit roads were cut off; a bridge swept away; River Simu burst its banks.
Al Jazeera · PBS NewsHour · Washington Times, Nov 28–29, 2024
Two killed; 1,469 households affected across thirteen villages; more than 120 homes lost.
ReliefWeb · IFRC GO, 2024
18,323 people affected; 1,129 houses completely destroyed; significant cropland and infrastructure damage; thousands of families displaced.
IFRC GO · ReliefWeb, May 2024
Business in downtown Kampala came to a standstill when heavy rain flooded shopping arcades and commercial buildings in the central business district.
Daily Monitor, October–November 2025
04Root Causes
Makerere University research found that approximately 50% of Kampala's wetlands have been lost to urban development. Factories, industrial parks, and housing developments have been built on swamps. Developers have encroached on drainage channels, often with political backing. A 2024 NEMA audit flagged multiple sites for non-compliance, though enforcement has been weak.
Makerere University · NEMA 2024 Audit · Watchdog Uganda
Kampala's drainage system was built decades ago and was never designed to handle the city's current population or rainfall intensity. NEMA reports around 60% of urban waste is improperly disposed of: much of it ends up blocking drains. The Nakivubo Channel, the main drainage artery running through all five city divisions, handles more than half of Kampala's stormwater. KCCA's annual budget of UGX 827 billion had zero allocation for new drainage channels at one point.
Daily Monitor · Watchdog Uganda · NEMA Report, 2025
Informal settlements in low-lying flood-prone areas like Bwaise, Kalerwe, Kinawataka, Kisenyi, and Katwe are particularly vulnerable. Paved road surfaces increase runoff and reduce natural water absorption. Building in road reserves and flood plains is common, with inadequate enforcement. Makerere academic Denis Arinabo notes that colonial planning legacies, weak governance, and contested urban development have created a 'dangerous flooding cocktail'.
Daily Monitor · AfriCGE · Laudato Youth Initiative
The IPCC has linked human-induced global warming to a 20% increase in rainfall intensity in some regions of East Africa over recent decades. Uganda's National Meteorological Authority regularly forecasts above-normal rainfall seasons.
IPCC 2021 · Uganda National Meteorological Authority
05Proposed Solution
Using Copernicus GLO-10 elevation data and OpenStreetMap drainage layers, TRACE builds a high-resolution digital model of Kampala's terrain, capturing slopes, valleys, hills, and existing drainage infrastructure at 10m resolution.
WhiteboxTools runs proven D8 flow direction and accumulation algorithms on the conditioned DEM. This produces an accurate map of every natural drainage path across the terrain without requiring a custom-trained neural network.
PyTorch and XGBoost analyze the gap between where water accumulates and where OSM drainage infrastructure exists. High accumulation with no nearby drain equals a recommendation zone. Output is a ranked list of coordinates with severity scores and suggested pipe routing.
A Streamlit dashboard embeds Pydeck for 3D terrain, Kepler.gl for flow heatmaps and risk layers, and Folium as a 2D fallback. City authorities can view recommendations, compare before-and-after scenarios, and monitor simulated sensor alerts in one interface.
In the full production version, low-cost IoT water-level sensors are placed at key drainage points across Kampala. For the hackathon, this hardware layer is simulated digitally within the 3D model.
06Target Users & Key Features
07Technical Architecture
Every tool in this stack is free and open-source. All heavy computation runs on Google Colab, eliminating local hardware constraints entirely. The stack achieves street-level drainage precision by fusing four independent data sources: GLO-10 terrain, HydroSHEDS watershed geometry, OpenStreetMap drainage and road layers, and Mapillary street-level imagery processed with computer vision.
No single source is sufficient alone. GLO-10 gives terrain shape but misses street-scale features. OSM has mapped channels but incomplete coverage. Mapillary fills the gaps OSM cannot see. HydroSHEDS validates that watershed boundaries are hydrologically correct before any analysis begins. Together they form a composite ground model that reflects how water actually moves through Kampala's streets.
The critical step tying everything together is stream burning. After WhiteboxTools conditions the DEM and Mapillary detections are georeferenced, those real-world drain locations are burned into the elevation model as forced flow paths. From that point, all hydrology calculations follow actual infrastructure rather than raw terrain alone. This is what closes the gap between city-block analysis and street-corridor precision.
How the layers tie together
GLO-10 + HydroSHEDS → validated terrain with correct watershed boundaries
OSM roads + drains → impermeable surfaces, known channel geometry
Mapillary + YOLOv8 → street-level drain detections not in OSM
WhiteboxTools → condition DEM, burn all drain sources, run D8 flow
PyTorch + XGBoost → gap analysis, flood risk scoring, ranked recommendations
Streamlit + Pydeck → dashboard rendering for KCCA decision makers
08Data Pipeline
09Hackathon Game Plan
10Proof of Concept Scope
For the hackathon, the team will focus on one specific neighborhood in Kampala rather than the entire city. This is intentional: a focused, working demo is more compelling than a broad, broken one. The pitch will clearly articulate how the system scales city-wide.
Choose a neighborhood known for flooding, such as Bwaise, Nakivubo, or Katanga, where the terrain and flooding patterns are well documented. This makes the AI recommendations immediately credible and relatable to judges.
11Government & KCCA Response
Constructed 16 crossing culverts along Allen Road and Sebana Road. In March 2026, flood water in the CBD drained in just 7 minutes instead of the usual 3+ hours. 7 of 18 planned drainage crossings completed by December 2025; remaining 11 targeted within 30 days. Longitudinal drainage along Ben Kiwanuka Street underway. Planned major box culvert on Namirembe Road to channel stormwater into Nakivubo. KCCA plans 47.7km of new drainage across 98 parishes in FY 2025/26, with 500 manhole covers reconstructed.
KCCA · AllAfrica, March 2026 / December 2025
A landmark resolution approved a new model: partnering with competent local investors to upgrade and cover Kampala's open drainage channels under strict KCCA supervision. Vision: a Kampala with closed, modern underground drainage systems, free from solid waste blockages. Inspired by the success of the Nakivubo Jugula channel project by Ham Enterprises: the area remained dry during the March 2025 floods. Funding to come from public-private partnerships as government and donor funding declines.
Watchdog Uganda · PML Daily · UG Bulletin, April 2025
A five-year master strategy built around four pillars: drainage system upgrade (Nakivubo, Lubigi, Kinawataka), waste management reform, green infrastructure (eco-friendly pavements, wetland reforestation, green corridors), and community engagement. Budget: UGX 1.3 trillion over five years, sourced from government, World Bank urban resilience grants, and green infrastructure investments.
Kampala Express, April 2025
A UGX 2.2 trillion programme launched in September 2024, co-funded by the World Bank. 15 roads covering 19.85km under active construction (Phase 1 of 81.7km total). Drainage channels constructed alongside road works. China Railway Seventh Group contracted for Wakiso road works at UGX 35 billion. Cross culverts installed at 11 of 13 targeted locations as of April 2026.
Daily Monitor · KCCA, 2024–2025
A nature-based solutions initiative by KCCA with the Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda Manufacturers Association, and international funders (EU, German BMZ, UK DFID). Pilot rainwater harvesting at 7 sites including schools and markets: Kitebi Secondary School received an 80,000-litre tank. Focus on integrating green infrastructure into urban planning.
KCCA, 2023–2024
12The Critical Gap
Despite ongoing physical infrastructure works, Uganda has no smart, data-driven system for monitoring, predicting, or intelligently optimizing its drainage network. Current responses are almost entirely reactive: authorities respond after flooding occurs, not before.
"Every year it's the same story. Wetlands are filled, water has nowhere to go, and roads become rivers. Without serious reforms, we'll keep seeing this."Paul Senoga, environmental policy analyst
"If the government doesn't step up with some drastic, decisive interventions, Ugandans will continue experiencing senseless loss of lives, business and property as a result of extreme weather episodes."Joel Ssenyonyi, Opposition Leader
13Scalability & Impact
Poor drainage in Kampala costs the economy millions of dollars annually in road damage, property loss, and lost productivity. TRACE gives city planners an evidence-based tool to make smarter infrastructure decisions: turning a reactive system into a proactive one.
14Constraints & Assumptions
15Success Metrics
Closing
The MVP is deliberately scoped to be achievable in one week with zero budget. Focus on making the demo clear and impactful: judges respond to a compelling problem, a credible solution, and visible potential. All team members should have Google accounts to access Google Colab. Divide tasks as follows: one person handles data collection and terrain modeling, one handles the AI simulation, and one handles the dashboard and presentation. Daily check-ins are essential given the tight timeline.