Water and environmental change in Africa

Perennially challenges I've just written a blog on the damage that drought can have to an economy and local community. 1.4 million people have now been displaced by the opposite .  Flooding is a perennial challenge in Nigeria and this will continue in a changing climate . The climate and low relief geography in this region does tend to favour flooding and floodplains but I read something very interesting in the Conversation about the potential causes being multi-functional damming and poor management. Multifaceted and mismanaged In a perfect world, a dam should have an agreed purpose. Flood control, hydro-electricity generation, navigational channels, fisheries... There are many uses for dams but trying to fit too many of these functions into one location can result in problems. For example, a dam built upstream from a wetlands can cause wetlands downstream to dry out. This can reduce the amount of water available to the people in the downstream region (and many other issues ...

Hello and welcome to my blog.  Over the next few months, I will be writing a series of blogs assessing the response of Africa to anthropogenic climate change. I will be using case studies to understand some impacts.  By now, I would hope I don't have to introduce climate change. Anthropogenic warming of the planet has caused the ongoing increase of the global average temperature. As shown in Figure 1, the average temperature has increased nearly 1.0°C in less than 40 years. In turn, this is affecting the global climate system. There is also a disparity in who is releasing these emissions, as shown in Figure 2, with less than 5% of historical global CO2 emissions coming from Africa. Whilst this warming has been disproportionately caused by the world's wealthiest nations, the effects will be felt hardest by the poorest. In 2020, The UN Climate Change and World Meterological Society co-published a study stating: " climate change is having a growing impact on the African cont...