CLUVA

CLimate change and Urban Vulnerability in Africa

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The social and economic impact of natural disasters in emerging economies and developing countries is growing. Many African countries have fragile economies unable to absorb the shocks caused by natural disasters enhanced by the increasing vulnerability of rapidly expanding urban areas. Climate change is likely to rapidly exacerbate this situation. The overall objective of CLUVA is to develop methods and knowledge to be applied to African cities to manage climate risks, to reduce vulnerabilities and to improve coping capacity and resilience towards climate changes. CLUVA will explore these issues in selected African cities (Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Douala, Ougadougou, St.Louis). The project aims at improving the capacity of scientific institutions, local councils and civil society to cope with climate change. CLUVA will assess the environmental, social and economic impacts and the risks of climate change induced hazards expected to affect urban areas (floods, sea-level rise, storm surges, droughts, heat waves, desertification, storms and fires) at various time frames. The project will develop innovative climate change risk adaptation strategies based on strong interdisciplinary components. CLUVA will be conducted by a balanced partnership of European and African partners. The 7 European partners will bring together some of EU’s leading experts in climate, quantitative hazard and risk assessment, risk management, urban planners and social scientists. The 6 African partners from South Africa and from the Universities of the selected cities cover a similar range of expertises, making possible an effective integrated research effort. The project is structured in 6 WorkPackages dealing with climate change and impact models (WP1), multiple vulnerability (WP2), urban planning and governance as key issues to increase the resilience (WP3), capacity building and dissemination (WP4), coordination of the activities in the selected cities (WP5) and project management (WP6).'

Introduzione (Teaser)

A consortium of African and European institutions worked together to model the impact of climate change-induced natural disasters on several African cities.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Urban Africa is vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters due to its fragile economies and the often-poor infrastructure in rapidly growing cities. Global climate change will only increase the risk in years to come.

The 'Climate change and urban vulnerability in Africa' (http://www.cluva.eu (CLUVA)) project developed methods for assessing and managing climate change-related risks. It aimed to help the continent's cities adapt to threats from the extreme weather conditions that are expected over the coming decades.

Project members matched Europe's leading climate and risk management experts, urban planners and social scientists with their counterparts in Africa. The purpose was to increase the ability of scientific institutions, local councils and civil society to face the challenges of climate change.

Partners studied five cities throughout the African continent to determine the environmental, social and economic impacts and risks of climate change. Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Douala in Cameroon, Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and Saint Louis in Senegal were selected for the project.

CLUVA built large-scale climate projections for Africa, and then scaled these predictions down to the level of individual cities. The downscaled models also took into account local geography, infrastructure and social conditions in each city.

The models allowed researchers to predict areas of high risk and extreme vulnerability. In addition, CLUVA produced guidelines and tools for the cities to mitigate these risks.

Strategies developed will enable cities to become more resilient to extreme weather events likely to affect vulnerable urban areas. They include heat waves, flooding, droughts, desertification and sea-level rise.

CLUVA generated knowledge about the direct and indirect impacts of climate change and its spatial and temporal scales. This is set to benefit urban communities in Africa in particular, but also the rest of the world.