GIS-based interactive web-mapping of primary school located in flood-prone area for disaster risk reduction in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)

Flooding remains one of the most recurrent environmental hazards affecting urban areas in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in rapidly growing cities where urban expansion often exceeds planning capacities. In Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso recurrent floods increasingly threaten educational infrastructures and disrupt school activities. Despite the growing use of Web GIS technologies in disaster management, limited studies have explored interactive geovisualization tools for educational risk communication in African urban environments. This study aims to develop an interactive web-based geovisualization platform for mapping flood-prone areas and identifying primary schools exposed to flooding in the municipality of Ouagadougou. The methodological approach combined geospatial databases of flood susceptibility zones and primary school locations. Spatial datasets were processed in QGIS and integrated into a web environment using open source geospatial and web-mapping technologies. The platform was designed to support interactive visualization, user navigation and spatial information retrieval. The results indicate that 925 primary schools were identified within the municipality, including 227 public schools and 698 private schools. Spatial analysis revealed that 5.19 % of schools are located in areas with very high flood susceptibility, while 20.78 % are situated in highly exposed zones. Moderate susceptibility concerns 26.30 % of schools, whereas 28.35 % and 19.37 % are located in low and very low susceptibility areas respectively. The developed platform enables users to visualize flood-prone areas interactively, access spatial information dynamically and filter zones according to flood susceptibility levels. The study demonstrates that interactive geovisualization can significantly improve the communication and interpretation of flood related information in educational contexts. The study further contributes to the development of low cost spatial decision support systems for educational resilience and urban climate adaptation in rapidly growing African cities. The platform represents a useful decision support tool for local authorities, urban planners and educational stakeholders involved in disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation.