Conceptualization and management of disasters and climate change events in Africa: a review

AbstractThe concepts of disasters, hazards and climatic events are well established, showing disciplinary-based perspectives. Globally, efforts have been made to come to a common understanding of these concepts; however, there remains a gap in the conceptualizations of these concepts in Africa, the hub of climate change impacts. This paper identified and characterized the understanding, management practices and limitations of disasters/climate change studies in Africa. This study employed a multi-level review process that resulted in the selection of 170 peer-reviewed articles for study. Findings revealed that the majority of the studies were tied to case studies both in the southern region of Africa and the country of South Africa. Findings also revealed that the 'natural disaster' narrative, which excludes the influence of humans in triggering these events, dominated the studies. This was complemented by the dominance of single-hazard narrative and disaster/hazard management measures that promote the prediction and modeling of nature and disasters. Further, it identified limitations in disaster and hazard studies in Africa such as the lack of synthesis of case studies, lack of adaptive planning, lack of state capacities, research-policy gaps among others. It was recommended that research on climate hazards should explore multi-hazards/disasters, demand driven, give more attention to underrepresented disciplines and capture future dynamics in the employed methodologies.

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Droughts, floods and freshwater ecosystems: evaluating climate change impacts and developing adaptation strategies

Marine and Freshwater Research ◽

10.1071/mf09285 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 62 (3) ◽

pp. 223 ◽

Cited By ~ 47

Author(s):

Allison Aldous ◽

James Fitzsimons ◽

Brian Richter ◽

Leslie Bach

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Case Studies ◽

Management Practices ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Numerical Models ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Freshwater Ecosystems ◽

Adaptation Strategies ◽

South Eastern ◽

Eastern Australia

Climate change is expected to have significant impacts on hydrologic regimes and freshwater ecosystems, and yet few basins have adequate numerical models to guide the development of freshwater climate adaptation strategies. Such strategies can build on existing freshwater conservation activities, and incorporate predicted climate change impacts. We illustrate this concept with three case studies. In the Upper Klamath Basin of the western USA, a shift in land management practices would buffer this landscape from a declining snowpack. In the Murray–Darling Basin of south-eastern Australia, identifying the requirements of flood-dependent natural values would better inform the delivery of environmental water in response to reduced runoff and less water. In the Savannah Basin of the south-eastern USA, dam managers are considering technological and engineering upgrades in response to more severe floods and droughts, which would also improve the implementation of recommended environmental flows. Even though the three case studies are in different landscapes, they all contain significant freshwater biodiversity values. These values are threatened by water allocation problems that will be exacerbated by climate change, and yet all provide opportunities for the development of effective climate adaptation strategies.

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Nature-Based Solutions to face climate change adaptation and mitigation in Mediterranean watersheds

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2035 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Itxaso Ruiz ◽

María José Sanz

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Land Management ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Management Practices ◽

Water Cycle ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Watershed Scale ◽

Sustainable Rural Development ◽

Adaptation And Mitigation

Rural areas of the Mediterranean watersheds face great environmental challenges, where climate change impacts the water cycle, the soil, and biodiversity, which are often priority issues for adaptation. These, have been aggravated by historical land management practices trends. In this context, we propose Nature Based Solutions (NBS) in the form of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) actions at the watershed scale to achieve climate change adaptation and mitigation while promoting other ecosystem services.SLM actions are local adaptation practices that promote sustainable rural development. Thus, we seek the combination of several actions to achieve regional (watershed scale) more integrated approaches. With this study, we aim at proving that NBS, and thus SLM, is a successful tool for alleviating climate change impacts (i.e. water scarcity, enhanced erosion, biodiversity decline) while promoting the role of land in mitigation and enhancing biodiversity in the rural Mediterranean areas.For this, we propose a novel conceptualization of SLM actions that moves from their local application and evaluation to the regional more systemic approaches through their combination. Results show synergies in the atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere, allow for the upscaling of SLM through systemic approaches and point at direct contributions to several Sustainable Development Goals.

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Perceptions About Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation—Case Studies from Indigenous Communities in Northern and Central Australia

10.2307/j.ctv1zcm2r5.29 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 419-434

Author(s):

Kerstin K. Zander ◽

Yiheyis T. Maru ◽

Digby Race ◽

Supriya Mathew ◽

John Rainbird

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Case Studies ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Indigenous Communities ◽

Central Australia

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Climate change impacts on the terrestrial biodiversity and carbon stocks of Oceania.

Pacific Conservation Biology ◽

10.1071/pc110220 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 220 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Grant W Wardell-Johnson ◽

Gunnar Keppel ◽

Julianne Sander

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Energy Use ◽

Management Practices ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Fire Frequency ◽

Carbon Stocks ◽

Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Area Network ◽

Terrestrial Biodiversity

We review the threats from anthropogenic climate change to the terrestrial biodiversity of Oceania, and quantify decline in carbon stocks. Oceania’s rich terrestrial biodiversity is facing unprecedented threats through the interaction of pervasive environmental threats (deforestation and degradation; introduced and invasive species; fragmentation) and the effects of anthropogenic climate change (sea level rise; altered rainfall patterns and increased fire frequency; temperature rises and increased storm severity, extreme weather events and abrupt system changes). All nine of Oceania’s terrestrial biomes harbour ecosystems and habitat types that are highly vulnerable under climate change, posing an immense conservation challenge. Current policies and management practices are inadequate and the need for new legislation and economic mechanisms is clear, despite powerful interests committed to limiting progress. Mitigation can be achieved by increasing the effectiveness of the protected area network, by maintaining and effectively managing existing carbon stocks and biodiversity, and by reforestation to sequester atmospheric carbon. A price on carbon emissions may encourage less carbon-intensive energy use while simultaneously encouraging reforestation on long-cleared land, and reducing degradation of native forests. However, realizing these changes will require societal change, and depend on input and collaboration from multiple stakeholders to devise and engage in shared, responsible management.

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Streamflow-based evaluation of climate model sub-selection methods

Climatic Change ◽

10.1007/s10584-020-02854-8 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 163 (3) ◽

pp. 1267-1285 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jens Kiesel ◽

Philipp Stanzel ◽

Harald Kling ◽

Nicola Fohrer ◽

Sonja C. Jähnig ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Model ◽

Historical Data ◽

Model Performance ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Climate Impact ◽

Selection Method ◽

Danube River ◽

Selection Methods ◽

Selection Of

AbstractThe assessment of climate change and its impact relies on the ensemble of models available and/or sub-selected. However, an assessment of the validity of simulated climate change impacts is not straightforward because historical data is commonly used for bias-adjustment, to select ensemble members or to define a baseline against which impacts are compared—and, naturally, there are no observations to evaluate future projections. We hypothesize that historical streamflow observations contain valuable information to investigate practices for the selection of model ensembles. The Danube River at Vienna is used as a case study, with EURO-CORDEX climate simulations driving the COSERO hydrological model. For each selection method, we compare observed to simulated streamflow shift from the reference period (1960–1989) to the evaluation period (1990–2014). Comparison against no selection shows that an informed selection of ensemble members improves the quantification of climate change impacts. However, the selection method matters, with model selection based on hindcasted climate or streamflow alone is misleading, while methods that maintain the diversity and information content of the full ensemble are favorable. Prior to carrying out climate impact assessments, we propose splitting the long-term historical data and using it to test climate model performance, sub-selection methods, and their agreement in reproducing the indicator of interest, which further provide the expectable benchmark of near- and far-future impact assessments. This test is well-suited to be applied in multi-basin experiments to obtain better understanding of uncertainty propagation and more universal recommendations regarding uncertainty reduction in hydrological impact studies.

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