Impact Story: Distillation of Climate Information Through Transdisciplinary Co-production

The provision of climate information to support climate risk management activities typically focuses on the interface between climate science and decision makers or ‘users’. Meeting user needs requires tailoring available products so they are relevant to the user’s context.Underlying information production assumptions are considered the domain of experts. Yet experts each make choices about appropriate source data, models, methods, assumptions, framing of uncertainty, and interpretations of the evidence. The resultant, numerous climate information sources can sometimes contradict each other. There are concerns about the potential consequences of this characteristic of climate risk management. FRACTAL’s distillation framework is grounded in transdisciplinary engagement, acknowledging the subjective elements of climate information construction by taking a humble science stance, opening assumptions and decisions up for interrogation, including the trade-offs between reducing uncertainty and increasing the risk of error.

Impact Story: Co-exploring Burning Issues, Decision-Making Processes & Climate Information Needs

This story illustrates the importance of transdisciplinary co-exploration. Decision-support methods and participatory exercises can facilitate the co-exploration of ‘burning issues’, decision-making processes and climate information needs. Decision-making can be complex and influenced by a range of stressors, including climate variability and change. Although climate impacts are felt, climate information is not currently incorporated into the decisions and actions of many city planners and policymakers – very few use the appropriate type, scale and format of climate information, and future climate projections are rarely consulted. Hence, scientists and researchers can overestimate planners and policymakers’ grasp of climate science, and underestimate the complexities of city decision-making. Using a range of decision support methods and activities, co-exploration in FRACTAL cities has built shared understanding and trusted relationships, informed city agendas and strengthened confidence and capacities of researchers and decision makers.

September 21, 2021
// Cities

Impact Story: FRACTAL City Learning Lab Approach

City learning lab processes were introduced to ensure a sound method of co-production, integrating a range of stakeholders in the process of exploring climate information for decision-making at city level. Cities face many challenges and operate in complex systems. The learning lab approach allows partners from various backgrounds to explore challenges in more depth, looking for integrated ways to address them.

The primary impact was to unpack the burning issues identified in each city. An important, secondary impact was the establishment of interpersonal connections, resulting from the iterative nature of the process. The approach can be an effective way to engage diverse stakeholders on tackling a shared problem by exploring different perspectives. It requires skilled facilitation, and ideally contributes to a deeper analysis of a specific problem and possible solutions, while developing new cross sectoral networks.

September 21, 2021
// Cities

Assessing the impact of climate change on soil erosion in East Africa using a convection-permitting climate model

Sarah Chapman, Cathryn E Birch, Marcelo V Galdos, Edward Pope, Jemma Davie, Catherine Bradshaw, Samuel Eze and John H Marsham

Soil erosion is a serious environment challenge in East Africa and leads to reduced agricultural yields and negative impacts on water quality. Using a state-of-the-art, high resolution climate model we looked at how climate change may impact soil erosion in Tanzania and Malawi. We found increases in rainfall intensity increased soil erosion. Mountainous areas which do not currently experience high levels of soil erosion may become vulnerable to erosion in the future, and areas which currently experience soil erosion may suffer from increased erosion. Upscaling of soil and water conservation practices, such as terracing and agro-forestry, will be needed in the future to manage soil erosion.

Promoting Southern Leadership within Climate Research Programmes

Julio Araujo, Roy Bouwer, Blane Harvey, Ying Syuan Huang, Kornelia N. Iipinge, Japhet J. Kashaigili, Beth Mackay, John Marsham, Alice McClure, Katharine Vincent

This brief reflects on the learning generated through the Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) programme, particularly examining how to promote Southern leadership opportunities for researchers from the Global South through programme design. It details some of the key challenges experienced by researchers from the Global South, and outlines how programme design can overcome some of the obstacles.

It draws on reflections from the experiences of researchers affiliated with the FCFA programme. These reflections have been captured through interviews, surveys and webinars led by the Coordination, Capacity Development and Knowledge Exchange (CCKE) unit and have been developed into various knowledge products

Policy brief: Translating Future Climate for Africa science for targeted policymakers needs

This brief summarizes a piece of work that explored the potential value of Future Climate For Africa (FCFA) and the closely related work on climate change, impacts and adaptation in tropical and sub-tropical sub-Saharan Africa. This work is from a policymaker or planner’s perspective and has a regional- or national-level focus. Insights developed are derived from an overview of advances made by FCFA climate science in simulating climate processes over tropical and sub-tropical Africa in relation to the state of knowledge as represented by the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC.

Impact story: Strengthening scientific capacity for African climate science through the LaunchPAD project

LaunchPAD is the first phase of the Climate Model Evaluation Hub for Africa. The aim of LaunchPAD is to develop climate model evaluation tools focusing on processes which matter in African regions, which can be automated to run across models. These tools will substantially improve understanding of how climate models represent Africa.

This understanding is fundamental to support further improvement of models over Africa, and to inform the use of climate model data in adaptation planning. The project therefore addresses vital scientific and technical developments which are needed in order to improve the credibility of future climate information.

Impact story: Cross-institutional development of knowledge and capacity building amongst African climate scientists partnering in AMMA-2050

Part of the co-production of climate information in AMMA-2050 included the development of an atlas containing information about projected future climate changes in West Africa, or climate metrics, that are relevant to supporting medium-term decision making. Such metrics included information on annual rainfall and the number of extreme precipitation days per year. In line with the capacity building aims of AMMA-2050, it was decided that the production of this atlas would be undertaken by African climate scientists who would be trained and supervised by UK-based climate scientists with more coding experience. The decision was made to combine production of the climate change atlases with a Python scientific language training course for African climate scientists involved in AMMA-2050.

Impact story: Strengthening the development of decision-relevant climate information: the impact of engaging in AMMA-2050 on partnering researchers

AMMA-2050 researchers have highlighted how engaging with the project has strengthened their ability to produce decision-relevant climate information not just in terms of technical capacities, but also in more effectively engaging with decision-makers to better appreciate their needs and develop more useful science. This engagement has also resulted in indirect benefits for some researchers, including career promotion.

Impact story: More and more flooding in Ouagadougou area, Burkina Faso

AMMA-2050 has developed methodologies for mapping inundation across Ouagadougou from intense storms, taking account of changes in land use and climate. Hydrological modelling allows exploration of how flows and inundated areas may change in the future at the city level in response to climate and land use change.