CSIR Articles : Communicating climate information for decision-making - SADC Climate Change Project
previous pageCommunicating climate information for decision-making - SADC Climate Change Project
By: Claire Davis
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research,
Natural Resources and the
Environment,
P.O. Box 320,
Stellenbosch,
7599,
South Africa
Email: cdavis@csir.co.za
The
USAID-funded project was designed to build
capacity among the SADC member states in understanding information on climate
impact and risk in the context of early-warning strategies and planning. The
central product of this project was a handbook entitled "Climate Risk
and Vulnerability: A Handbook for Southern Africa" (http://www.rvatlas.org/sadc/handbook/index.php). The aim of this handbook
was to provide decision-makers with up
to date information, appropriate for national and sub-national planning, on the
risks of climate change and variability, as well as equipping them with
understanding of potential responses to manage those risks.
In order to meet its aims, the
production of "Climate Risk and Vulnerability: A Handbook for Southern Africa"
has been innovative in a number of respects. Firstly, it was produced by a team
that comprises climate scientists, social scientists with experience in
impacts, vulnerability and adaptation, and communications experts. Secondly,
and reflecting this diverse team, the content covers the likely physical
manifestations of climate change in southern Africa, together with an
understanding of how social vulnerability and adaptive capacity affect how such
changes translate into impacts. Novel downscaled climate projections (including
results from both empirical and dynamical downscaling) for the region are
presented in the context of managing uncertainty, including a broader
conception of understanding around climate change, including the overall status
of evidence and how we know. The chapter on vulnerability introduces the
concepts of vulnerability and adaptive capacity, and draws on real-world case
studies from around the region, contributed by a variety of different
practitioners. The handbook concludes with an overview of potential responses,
including both mitigation and adaptation, in order to respond to the risks of
climate change.
The
information made available through the handbook has begun to serve the
increasing requests by stakeholders in southern Africa for information about
climate change and its impacts on key sectors in the region. Building upon the
core chapters in the handbook, a three day training course was specially developed for Namibia,
Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The training course material
is available for download at http://www.rvatlas.org/sadc/training/index.php
Contact: CSIR
Supporting Research Documentation
- New facility launched to address biomass waste challenges, boost industry competitiveness
- Research identifies alternative uses for fly ash from pulp and paper mills
- Meeting Ethiopia’s growing demand for starch using mango seeds
- Alien plants threaten to use up half of the inflows into two important dams in SA
- CSIR informs water requirements of SA’s multi-billion rand deciduous fruit industry
- Pinning down the period for increased risk of fire in the African savannas
- One step closer to separating waste at source
- Experts pinpoint eight unique lakes in SA
- CSIR waste experts contribute to landmark regional waste report
- Africa’s first Earth system model to provide African-derived projections of climate change
- 2nd edition of the Climate Risk and Vulnerability handbook
- Volumes and Efficiencies of Water-use within selected indigenous and introduced tree species in SA
- Forests, rangelands and climate change in southern Africa - Forests and Climate Change Working Paper No. 12.
- Communicating climate information for decision-making - SADC Climate Change Project
- Detection of large-scale landscape changes in and around the Kruger National Park
- Researchers one step closer to providing a country-wide nitrogen map for southern Africa
- Application of Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) for CSIR GxN2107
- Chemical and Cryo-methods for assessing hardwood pulp fibre ultrastructure
- Understanding our natural resources at the nano-scale for improved utilisation
- South African risk and vulnerability atlas
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- Comparison of deterministically predicted genetic gains with those realised in a South African Eucalyptus grandis breeding program
- Acid bi-sulphite pulping effects on hardwoods and a softwood revealed by atomic force microscopy
- A technique to identify annual growth rings in Eucalyptus grandis using annual measurements of diameter at breast height and gamma ray densitometry
- Comparison of the biophysical and economic water-use efficiencies of indigenous and introduced forests in South Africa
- Measurement of Stickies (Macro, Micro and Potential Secondary Stickies)
- Cellulose Fibril Aggregation Studies of Eucalyptus Dissolving Pulps Using Atomic Force Microscopy
- Identification of PCR-base markers linked to wood splitting in Eucalyptus Grandis
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