Celebrating International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction

On 13^th October 2021 the World marked the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, which aims to highlight international cooperation and best practices which have a positive impact on communities living in disaster-prone parts of the world. Sustained support from international cooperation is needed to ensure developing countries receive adequate support in disaster risk reduction.

Researchers at the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI), as well as at UCT, are involved in an array of projects which highlight climate change related disaster risk reduction and contribute towards providing support to disaster-prone communities. Through both fundamental and applied climate science, UCT researchers are working to develop methods for 1) understanding how climate change is altering the risks of hazards such as drought and heavy rainfall, ii) the generation and use of climate information in climate risk management and adaptation (with a strong focus on collaborative production and use of this information), and 3) place-based risk reduction through assessment of nature based climate solutions.

Interesting projects investigating climate change risk and risk reduction at ACDI and the wider UCT research community:

• Towards Equitable and Sustainable Nature-based Solutions (TES NbS) explores the role of NbS in reducing risk and vulnerability to climate change in developing regions, focusing on Southern African Water Towers. This project aims to use nature-based solutions for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, with a special focus on how catchment restoration can mitigate drought impacts on water security, as well as the trade-offs between water and carbon. Nature-based solutions involve working with nature to promote human well-being and ecosystem benefits, and can support climate mitigation and adaptation actions to reduce climate risk.

 

• The Socio-Economic Benefits of Ecological Infrastructure (SEBEI) project – The overall objective of this innovative, transdisciplinary research project is to develop an evidence-based integrated framework and prototype “investment case” for strengthening water-­related Ecological Infrastructure (EI) while: i) supporting well-­functioning livelihood strategies/value chains; ii) creating new livelihood opportunities and value chains; and iii) reducing hydroclimatic risks. SEBEI aims to generate new knowledge by combining livelihoods and value chain analysis with an EI approach to water management and next-generation hydroclimatic modelling at optimal spatial resolution.

 

• The Climate System Analysis Group (GSAG) was tasked this year with developing a National Climate Risk and Vulnerability (CRV) Assessment Framework. The framework is intended to provide guidance on how to undertake CRV assessments in order to enable alignment, comparison and aggregation across them and thereby underpin an integrated, effective climate adaptation response across scales.

 

• Professor Mark New is the first AXA Chair in African Climate Risk. The focus of his research programme is on quantifying and understanding the changing risk of climate on water and food security in southern Africa. It brings together expertise in climate and weather risk attribution, statistical sciences, hydrological and agricultural sciences, and economics.

 

• The Biophysical and Economic Impacts of Hydroclimatic Extremes Project - The Environmental Change Institute at University of Oxford in partnership with ACDI Director Prof Mark New, under his AXA Chair in African Climate Risk brings together cutting-edge climate change attribution and impacts science to develop methods that can apportion the socio-economic costs of climate change between local factors that affect sensitivity to climate change and global-scale human forcing of climate that changes the risk of climate extremes.

 

• IFAD multi-country climate risk analysis - Funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), this project aims to assess the potential impacts of climate change on high-priority rainfed agricultural crops in eight African countries (Angola, Malawi, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe), based on the application of downscaled climate scenarios and GIS-based tools for modelling current and future crop suitability.

 

• Partnerships for Resilience Through Innovation and Integrated Management of Emergencies and Disasters (PRIMED) – This collaborative project aims to harness the power of social innovation to enhance the resilience and sustainability of coastal communities in the Global South. The project network is based at three institutions: The Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies (IESS) at the University of Ghana, The African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) and The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research

 

• Improved Municipal Planning in African CiTies − IMPACT − for a climate resilient urban future is a three year project implemented in Zimbabwe and Malawi. This is a collaborative project between ICLEI and ACDI and considers the role of multistakeholder collaborative mechanisms and collaborative governance in supporting disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and resilience. ACDI research specifically highlighted how collaboration was mobilised and its effectiveness during a slow onset, multi-year drought in Harare, Zimbabwe.

 

Recent papers and workshops highlighting climate change risk within Africa:

• A recent paper by Hugh Cole and UCT collaborators explores managing and responding to weather and climate disasters within South Africa, focusing specifically on Cape Town’s drought disaster planning and the 2018 Day Zero drought – Click here to read the full article, or to learn more about the Cape Town Drought Response Learning Initiative.

 

• Two recent paper’s by ACDI researcher Nick Simpson highlight climate risk in Africa helping to advance the IPCC framing on climate risk and climate change. Click here to read about climate literacy in Africa, or to read about climate change adaptation in Africa.

 

• Petra Holden leads a recently submitted paper on “Nature-Based Solutions in Mountain Catchments Reduce Impact of Anthropogenic Climate Change on Hydrological Drought Severity” which is currently under review at Nature Communications Earth & Environment. This paper links back to ACDI’s TES NbS project explores the role of NbS in reducing risk and vulnerability to climate change in developing regions, focusing on Southern African Water Towers.

 

• PRIMED recently hosted a workshop which explored the experiences of academics and practitioners who have created and/or implemented community-driven disaster risk reduction, management and preparedness projects. They released a short summary of the workshop which reported on the key insights of the workshop. Read the full summary here.

 

• Research from the Socio-Economic Benefits of Ecological Infrastructure (SEBEI) project highlights the “direct and indirect socio-economic benefits from ecological infrastructure interventions in the Western Cape, South Africa”. Read the article here.