Climate analysis application in Cape Town
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weADAPT has been working with the Climate Information Portal (CIP)run by CSAG at the Climate Systems Analysis Group in Cape Town to integrate each others platform into their own. Whereas weADAPT has a wealth of case studies on climate change adaptation, CIP has developed a robust methodology to downscale climate information to hundreds of climate stations in Africa and Asia. Having access to climate science information alongside your adaptation case study can be hugely valuable for end users, and we see a lot of potential in comparing the two. In terms of support, we have developed an 8-step guidance page to show users the best way to use the integrated data, and also a case study which has used the applied the guidance steps in a flooding scenario in Cape Town, South Africa.
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Climate analysis application in Cape Town
- 1. Using climate information to support adaptation planning and policy-making: A step-by-step guide A vegetable farmer in Philippi, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. Source: FLICKR/KOSMOSELEEVIKE
- 2. Make sure you have completed these preliminary steps before you start Conducted a basic vulnerability assessment (Link to guidance= http://weadapt.org/knowledge-base/vulnerability/guidance-for-assessing- vulnerability) Identified the key climate sensitivities and in particular taking into account the following? livelihoods/ and economic activities? Infrastructure and services relied upon for that site?
- 3. Why? • You may not have thought about your problem as a question yet, but this can be a useful exercise not least because you can always check back to this question to see if you are answering it. How? • Set out some parameters of your problem by asking yourself, ‘what do I want to get out of this process’. Having realistic expectations of the answer is important at this stage. Step 1: Define the question © Micky Aldridge
- 4. Step 2: locate the right climate station 3. Navigate to where you are working and look at what stations are around where your case study area is located. 1. Go to the Adaptation Layer. 2. Turn on the climate stations by pressing "view climate stations“. 4. Click on the closest station.
- 5. Step 3: Investigate historical records 3. Now you can look at the whole time series of the historical data recorded at this station, looking across all the years. 1. Click through into CIP from the weADAPT placemark to look at more information that lies “behind” this overview. 2. Click on historical monthly data record. 4. Which climate variables are available in CIP? (Look at the drop-down menu.) How do these match up with the ones you wanted to look at, identified in Step 1? What extremes and patterns do you notice?
- 6. Step 4: Investigate future projections 3. Looking at the projections consider; a) is there a clear direction of change at critical times of year that most of the models agree on? b) How much is that change? How wide is the uncertainty range? 1. Click through to the future climate scenarios (also referred to as downscaled projections) for that station. 2. Look at the variables you are interested in and compare the spread of projections across the two different emissions scenarios. 4. The default time period of projections displayed is 2040-2060, but you can change these on the slider bar as relevant to your needs.
- 7. Step 5: Check for consistency with proximal stations 3. Check the historical data for consistency 1. Close the content box to reveal the map behind it. 2. Look at what other stations are also nearby the project site (check across the different datasets). 4. Check the future projections. Note, should there be inconsistencies, there may well be mitigating circumstances, for example Cape Point station is located on a peninsula where temperature is heavily affected by its maritime influences.
- 8. Step 6: Analysis • Look back over the information you have gathered during Steps 2- 5 • What can you say about the climate in this place? How might it change under various future scenarios, and what this might mean for those who live and work there? • What could be done differently to adapt to current climate conditions and prepare for how these patterns might shift in the future?
- 9. Step 7: Compare with other adaptation studies • Go back into weADAPT and search the Adaptation Layer for projects elsewhere tackling similar climate risks to see: – What adaptation options are they testing or promoting that might be worth considering as options in your study or project? – Who has experiences of implementing adaptation measures that you might be able to learn from?
- 10. Step 8: Share your work • Document and share what you’ve done by adding it to the weADAPT platform • The easiest way to do this is through the QuickShare form • For guidance on how to share content via weADAPT go to: http://weadapt.org/knowledge- base/guidance/share
- 11. Useful links • To see a how we work through these steps in a case study focussing on land use management and zoning in a suburb of the city of Cape Town, South Africa, go to: http://weadapt.org/knowledge-base/using-climate- information/using-climate-information-case-study • To view the full climate guidance, go to: http://weadapt.org/knowledge- base/using-climate-information/guide-to-using-climate-information
Notes de l'éditeur
- This presentation describes how weADAPT can be used together with the Climate Information Portal (CIP) to quickly and easily access climate data for many locations across Africa, using an interactive map. By linking the two portals, users are able to see the climate data context as they read about a project, or to find data to support their own research, project planning or policy design in a specific place or area.
- You might ask questions such as: When have climate impacts been experienced in the past? What time of year was it (episodes to look at in the climate data)? How often does it happen? What else was happening at that time that compounded the unfavourable climate conditions and made the impacts worse?
- For any location, there may be a wide range of climate data available, only some of which are relevant to what you are doing – for example, temperature projections are unlikely to be relevant in gauging future flood risks, but they would be in evaluating future irrigation needs. You should only include climate data and graphs in your reports that help explain the problem you are highlighting, the course of action you propose, and your reasons for selecting certain actions or interventions over other options.
- In some cases the closest station in terms of distance is not the most similar. Think about the influence of elevation, mountains, water bodies, forests, etc. when making your station selection. When the rainy periods are – which month gets the most rainfall on average? The average temperature range through the year;What time period data are available for (how far back does the record go, and how recently does it end?). You might like to download the graphic showing historical climate monthly averages so that you can add it to your project documentation, because it gives a good overview of the average climate as it has been in this place over the last few decades. If the station is not close to your project / study site, you might want to add some text drawing attention to the extent that there might be local variability in the climate. The extent of such variability is place-specific, depending on the topography, land cover, proximity to the ocean, etc.While finding the most suitable stations to work with, also check the other placemarks in the area to see what other projects are going on there: Has anyone else already conducted a climate analysis, vulnerability assessment, done an impact assessment or implemented an adaptation plan in the vicinity of your project site and uploaded information about it on weADAPT that you can learn from?
- In some cases the closest station in terms of distance is not the most similar. Think about the influence of elevation, mountains, water bodies, forests, etc. when making your station selection. When the rainy periods are – which month gets the most rainfall on average? The average temperature range through the year;What time period data are available for (how far back does the record go, and how recently does it end?). You might like to download the graphic showing historical climate monthly averages so that you can add it to your project documentation, because it gives a good overview of the average climate as it has been in this place over the last few decades. If the station is not close to your project / study site, you might want to add some text drawing attention to the extent that there might be local variability in the climate. The extent of such variability is place-specific, depending on the topography, land cover, proximity to the ocean, etc.While finding the most suitable stations to work with, also check the other placemarks in the area to see what other projects are going on there: Has anyone else already conducted a climate analysis, vulnerability assessment, done an impact assessment or implemented an adaptation plan in the vicinity of your project site and uploaded information about it on weADAPT that you can learn from?
- In some cases the closest station in terms of distance is not the most similar. Think about the influence of elevation, mountains, water bodies, forests, etc. when making your station selection. When the rainy periods are – which month gets the most rainfall on average? The average temperature range through the year;What time period data are available for (how far back does the record go, and how recently does it end?). You might like to download the graphic showing historical climate monthly averages so that you can add it to your project documentation, because it gives a good overview of the average climate as it has been in this place over the last few decades. If the station is not close to your project / study site, you might want to add some text drawing attention to the extent that there might be local variability in the climate. The extent of such variability is place-specific, depending on the topography, land cover, proximity to the ocean, etc.While finding the most suitable stations to work with, also check the other placemarks in the area to see what other projects are going on there: Has anyone else already conducted a climate analysis, vulnerability assessment, done an impact assessment or implemented an adaptation plan in the vicinity of your project site and uploaded information about it on weADAPT that you can learn from?
- In some cases the closest station in terms of distance is not the most similar. Think about the influence of elevation, mountains, water bodies, forests, etc. when making your station selection. When the rainy periods are – which month gets the most rainfall on average? The average temperature range through the year;What time period data are available for (how far back does the record go, and how recently does it end?). You might like to download the graphic showing historical climate monthly averages so that you can add it to your project documentation, because it gives a good overview of the average climate as it has been in this place over the last few decades. If the station is not close to your project / study site, you might want to add some text drawing attention to the extent that there might be local variability in the climate. The extent of such variability is place-specific, depending on the topography, land cover, proximity to the ocean, etc.While finding the most suitable stations to work with, also check the other placemarks in the area to see what other projects are going on there: Has anyone else already conducted a climate analysis, vulnerability assessment, done an impact assessment or implemented an adaptation plan in the vicinity of your project site and uploaded information about it on weADAPT that you can learn from?
- For example, how did they select which option to go for? How did they finance it? How are they monitoring the impacts?
- This way, if someone else wants to learn from your experience, or build on it further, they can. And if they need to do a climate assessment for their location, they can look at the steps you’ve followed as an example!