African Countries with Highly Impacted Road Infrastructure due to Climate Change Impacts

The Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change (EACC) was initiated by The World Bank to develop a more precise global estimate of the costs to adapt to climate change. The EACC study was designed to help developing countries, which are the most vulnerable to climate change, better understand and assess strategies to deal with the affects of climate change. In order to quantitatively estimate the costs of adapting to climate change, engineer-based models were developed that estimate the impact of climate stressors. This paper focuses on the stressor-response function dealing with roads in Africa. African countries are especially vulnerable to long-term disasters, such as droughts, sea coast change and flooding frequency. These climate change impacts have a significant emotional, economic and social toll on communities. The limited infrastructure of African countries makes each road a valuable asset. This paper attempts to identify the African countries that have the highest value roads. Also, building on previous research done by Paul Chinowsky, costs associated with climate change for African countries are compiled and the cost savings adaptation can create for each country are evaluated. From this data, African countries that are highly burdened by climate change costs are identified. Finally, countries that benefit the most from adaptation are identified. Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Niger and Mali are countries with low road densities. Chad, Malawi, Niger and Mozambique are highly impacted by the costs of climate change. Malawi, Lesotho and Mozambique have the most to gain from adaptation. Policy makers can use the data compiled in this report to better prepare roads for climate change. The positive changes these mitigation efforts can create will alleviate the social and economic impacts climate change has the potential to cause

Adaptation Advantage to Climate Change Impacts on Road Infrastructure in Africa through 2100

The African continent is facing the potential of a US$183.6 billion liability to repair and maintain roads damaged from temperature and precipitation changes related to climate change through 2100. As detailed, the central part of the continent faces the greatest impact from climate change with countries facing an average cost of US$22 million annually, if they adopt a proactive adaptation policy and a US$54 million annual average, if a reactive approach is adopted. Additionally, countries face an average loss of opportunity to expand road networks from a low of 22 per cent to a high of 235 per cent in the central region.infrastructure, climate change, roads, cost estimates

Adaptation advantage to climate change impacts on road infrastructure in Africa through 2100

The African continent is facing the potential of a US$183.6 billion liability to repair and maintain roads damaged from temperature and precipitation changes related to climate change through 2100. As detailed, the central part of the continent faces the greatest impact from climate change with countries facing an average cost of US$22 million annually, if they adopt a proactive adaptation policy and a US$54 million annual average, if a reactive approach is adopted. Additionally, countries face an average loss of opportunity to expand road networks from a low of 22 per cent to a high of 235 per cent in the central region

Isoprenylcysteine Carboxy Methylation Is Essential for Development in Dictyostelium discoideum

Members of the Ras superfamily of small GTPases and the heterotrimeric G protein γ subunit are methylated on their carboxy-terminal cysteine residues by isoprenylcysteine methyltransferase. In Dictyostelium discoideum, small GTPase methylation occurs seconds after stimulation of starving cells by cAMP and returns quickly to basal levels, suggesting an important role in cAMP-dependent signaling. Deleting the isoprenylcysteine methyltransferase-encoding gene causes dramatic defects. Starving mutant cells do not propagate cAMP waves in a sustained manner, and they do not aggregate. Motility is rescued when cells are pulsed with exogenous cAMP, or coplated with wild-type cells, but the rescued cells exhibit altered polarity. cAMP-pulsed methyltransferase-deficient cells that have aggregated fail to differentiate, but mutant cells plated in a wild-type background are able to do so. Localization of and signaling by RasG is altered in the mutant. Localization of the heterotrimeric Gγ protein subunit was normal, but signaling was altered in mutant cells. These data indicate that isoprenylcysteine methylation is required for intercellular signaling and development in Dictyostelium