CLUVA

Climate Change and Urban Vulnerability in Africa

Project Summary

The overall objective of CLUVA was 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 explored these issues in selected African cities (Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Douala, Ouagadougou, St. Louis).

The project aimed to improve the capacity of scientific institutions, local councils and civil society to cope with climate change.

A final report to the European Commission provides a summary of key findings and outputs for the whole project, available <here> [External website].

My research focused upon Task 2.2 Vulnerability and adaptation potential associated with urban ecosystems. The objectives were (1) to characterise and analyse, quantify and map important ecosystem services of the urban green infrastructure that increase the resilience of African cities to climate change; (2) to assess the impacts of climate change on urban green structure & its ecosystem services; and (3) to evaluate the prospects for urban green structure as a measure for adapting African cities to climate change.

The project was funded by EU Seventh Framework Programme on Environment.

Academic Outputs

S.J. Lindley, G. Cavan., et al. (2015). Green Infrasaturcture for Climate Adaptation in African Cities. In: Pauleit, S, Coly, A, Fohlmeister, S, Gasparini, P, Jørgensen, G, Kabisch, S, Kombe, WJ, Lindley, S, Simonis, I & Yeshitela, K 2015, Urban Vulnerability and Climate Change in Africa: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Springer Nature, Pages 107-152.

G. Cavan, S. Lindley, F. Jalayer, K. Yeshitela, S. Pauleit, et al. (2014). Urban morphological determinants of temperature regulating ecosystem services in two African cities. Ecological Indicators. 42, pp.43-57.

F. Jalayer, R. De Risi, F. De Paola, M. Giugni, G. Manfredi, et al. (2014). Probabilistic GIS-based method for delineation of urban flooding risk hotspots. Natural Hazards. 73(2), pp.975-1001.

Cavan, G. Lindley, S. et al. (2013). Urban morphological determinants of temperature regulating ecosystem services in African cities: The case of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Geophysical Research Abstracts 15: EGU2013-12086.