64 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Weathering drought in Africa
Close to 19 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are threatened by severe food
shortages, partly due to variations in the weather. Our understanding of
meteorology is improving all the time, but can science really help the people at
the sharp end of Africa’s weather
Recommended from our members
BRAVE: building understanding of climate variability into planning of groundwater supplies from low storage aquifers in Africa
The BRAVE project aims to reduce risk and improve water security resilience of rural communities in the Sahel region of Africa by combining better understanding and planning of groundwater supplies with practical communication and knowledge exchange at all levels, from individual smallholder farmers to national government and regional bodies.
The BRAVE project takes an interdisciplinary approach to integrate information on livelihoods and vulnerability with physical modelling of land surface and groundwater. Our improved understanding of how water moves through catchments in the Sahel and the resilience of supplies to climate variability and change, combined with information on vulnerability of different groups in the community, has enabled the project to create contextually applicable planning and monitoring tools. These tools support sustainable investment in groundwater and unlock the potential of this valuable water source.
The BRAVE project is part of the UPGro consortium who produced a film communicating the consortium’s findings: http://www.walker.ac.uk/about-walker/news-events/upgro- film-unlocking-af ricas-groundwater-potential/
How the project is supporting the COP26 priorities
In the Sahel region, rainfall is projected to become increasingly erratic with climate change. Alternative, more reliable water sources are required to support poverty reduction and rural development. The region contains large volumes of water underground, in groundwater aquifers, which may be enhanced by more intense rainfall events. The BRAVE project aims to develop tools to support evidence-based, sustainable and contextually relevant management of this groundwater resource, and communicate these with stakeholders at all levels, from small holder farming communities, to district planning officers and national policy makers. This will be vital for supporting adaptation and resilience to climate impacts in the region. This is directly relevant to the first COP26 priority stated by Alok Sharma MP in his speech to UN member states on 8 March 2020: “First, adaptation and resilience. Helping people, economies and the environment adapt and prepare for the impacts of climate change.”
Impact
The BRAVE project has supported increased evidence-based decision making on groundwater resource use and planning at multiple levels. Strong relationships with stakeholders in national government and the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) has been critical to these impacts.
At the transboundary level, BRAVE findings on groundwater, poverty and water resource access were used to inform the White Volta Basin Authority’s Integrated Water Resource Management plans.
At the national level, engagement with CONIWAS in Ghana resulted in a request from parliamentarians to establish an intersectoral committee on groundwater. In Ghana and Burkina Faso, national policy makers attended scenario planning workshops on climate change and groundwater. In Burkina Faso, these scenarios will inform the development of the National Adaptation Plan for the Water Sector.
At the community level, farmer-led radio programmes have provided accessible, relevant information to farmers, supporting ground-level changes that improve their climate resilience
Recommended from our members
Groundwater country profiles for seven UpGro consortium project countries in Africa
Country profiles were written for 7 core UpGro countries (Burkina, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda) which combine country-specific information on groundwater resources, key findings across UpGro projects, and case studies showing impacts of UpGro work. The profiles were intended as standalone briefing notes for national stakeholders, or those interested in what UPGro has done in those specific countries. They are published on the UpGro website.
Link:
https://upgro.org/country-profiles
Recommended from our members
RAINWATCH handbook: a step by step guide to using RAINWATCH, version 1.0
The RAINWATCH Handbook has been designed to help RAINWATCH users navigate the web-based RAINWATCH system. Examples of use include policy discussions within the MoFA (Ministry of Food and Agriculture) to discuss with crop scientists, extension officers and farmers the implications of the RAINWATCH information to improve decision-making through the season. Farmers who are practicing rain-fed or irrigated agriculture require timely, accurate season-to-date and forward looking rainfall information for planning purposes. Another example of use could be to improve information provided to farmers via radio or via NGO activities that require weather information for their projects.
The Handbookl includes a series of easy to follow step-by-step visuals based on the RAINWATCH training presentations to help new users/priducers of information understand the different views and content to make informed selections of the available content for their decision use cases
Recommended from our members
Uganda - Synthesising Evidence for Targeted National Responses to Climate Change
The rapidly changing climate conditions in Uganda are likely to cause increase of extreme weather events such as erratic rainfall pattern, floods, landslides, hailstorms, ice melting, heat and drought that may lead to a multitude of livelihoods disruptions. The Integrated Database for African Policymakers, (IDAPS), will integrate climate, crops, fisheries and hydrology information with livelihoods data so policy makers can examine the synthesised evidence and develop more appropriate national responses to climate change impacts, particularly among the most vulnerable populations in rural parts of Uganda
Recommended from our members
Using the Implementation Centric Evolving Climate Change Adaptation Process to bridge the gap between policy and action
With climate impacts increasing in both frequency and intensity and unprecedented climate events having devastating results, the need for timely policy and action to support adaption is not in doubt. However, the gap between policy and action leaves many communities exposed to extreme events and vulnerable to loss of life and livelihoods. This is partly due to the difficulty policymakers face when confronted by climate projections with their inherent uncertainties. Competing sectoral interests and a lack of resources often compound such challenges. To address these issues, the Implementation Centric Evolving Climate Change Adaptation Process (ICECCAP) encases the climate risk assessment in an enabling framework to track resource, knowledge and regulatory needs. This process was applied as part of a UNEP project to support the National Adaptation Plan in Pakistan. A range of climate storylines, describing plausible climate futures and their potential environmental and socio-economic impacts, were developed and discussed with local stakeholders, including policy makers from across levels of governance. The process allowed us to translate complex physical science into narratives that could be communicated clearly to non-technical national stakeholders, forming a basis for subsequent negotiation and decision-making at a local level to address multiple risks and respond to adaptation needs at this finer resolution. This reflects our aim, as part of the My Climate Risk network, to amalgamate bottom-up climate risk assessment with climate projection data that remains meaningful at a local scale. We show how the integration of scientific research and local expert stakeholder views can promote buy-in to adaptation planning. Grounded in a systemic and comprehensive understanding of potential impacts of climate change, this process has implications across socio-economic, environmental and governance spheres
Recommended from our members
Designing the next generation of climate adaptation research for development
Adaptation research has changed significantly in recent years as funders and researchers seek to encourage greater impact, ensure value for money and promote interdiscipinarity across the natural and social sciences. While these developments are inherently positive they also bring fresh challenges. This Perspective reviews experiences from the delivery of past and current adaptation research and reflects on the merits and limitations of the evolving adaptation research landscape. We propose five key areas that need to be changed in order to meet the needs of future adaptation research, namely: increasing transparency and consultation in research design; encouraging innovation in the design and delivery of adaptation research programmes; demonstrating impact on the ground; addressing incentive structures; and promoting more effective brokering, knowledge management and learning. As large international funding initiatives such as the Future Earth and the Global Challenges Research Fund start to take shape we underscore the importance of learning from past experiences and scaling-up of successful innovations in research funding models
Recommended from our members
Heatwaves: an invisible risk in UK policy and research
In 2019, a heatwave – an unusual extended period of hot weather – broke the UK’s highest recorded temperature of 38.7 °C set in 2003. Of concern is that for summer 2019, this resulted in 892 excess deaths. With the intensity and frequency of UK heatwaves projected to increase, and summer temperatures predicted to be 5 °C hotter by 2070, urgent action is needed to prepare for, and adapt to, the changes now and to come. Yet it remains unclear what actions are needed and by whom. In response, a systematic literature review of UK heatwaves peer-reviewed publications, inclusive of keyword criteria (total papers returned = 183), was conducted to understand what lessons have been learnt and what needs to happen next. Our research shows that heatwaves remain largely an invisible risk in the UK. Communication over what UK residents should do, the support needed to make changes, and their capacity to enact those changes, is often lacking. In turn, there is an inherent bias where research focuses too narrowly on the health and building sectors over other critical sectors, such as agriculture. An increased amount of action and leadership is therefore necessary from the UK government to address this
Recommended from our members
The utility of impact data in flood forecast verification for anticipatory actions: case studies from Uganda and Kenya
Skilful flood forecasts have the potential to inform preparedness actions across scales, from smallholder farmers through to humanitarian actors, but require verification first to ensure such early warning information is robust. However, verification efforts in data-scarce regions are limited to only a few sparse locations at pre-existing river gauges. Hence, alternative data sources are urgently needed to enhance flood forecast verification to better guide preparedness actions. In this study, we assess the usefulness of less conventional data such as flood impact data for verifying flood forecasts compared with river-gauge observations in Uganda and Kenya. The flood impact data contains semi-quantitative and qualitative information on the location and number of reported flood events derived from five different data repositories (Dartmouth Flood Observatory, DesInventar, Emergency Events Database, GHB, and local) over the 2007–2018 period. In addition, river-gauge observations from stations located within the affected districts and counties are used as a reference for verification of flood forecasts from the Global Flood Awareness System. Our results reveal both the potential and the challenges of using impact data to improve flood forecast verification in data-scarce regions. From these, we provide a set of recommendations for using impact data to support anticipatory action planning
- …