Africa’s rapidly urbanising population centres face challenges that are worsened by climate change. Consequently, developing evidence-led adaptive capacity is a high priority to lessen the burdens that are already being experienced by millions people. Locally-responsive and effective solutions can be transformative for supporting adaptation and resilience in the built environment, while also creating opportunities to improve wellbeing and sustainable economic development. African innovation and leadership coupled with global trends in affordable green technologies present opportunities for interventions (e.g., targeted infrastructure investment, or changes to governance and planning frameworks) to effect systemic change. OPALS activities enhance the use of systems thinking approaches and evidence in decision-making processes to improve outcomes for people and nature in urban settings.
Example Activities
Oppenheimer Research Impact Fellow Dr Tom Powell co-authored a report on Africa climate solutions: Investing in infrastructure for climate resilience across Africa (Executive Summary, Full Report), in partnership with the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG).
This report assessed the potential for infrastructure investment to deliver climate resilience and adaptation for the communities it serves, and offered systems thinking tools to support investor decision-making. The report highlighted case studies where solutions from urban re-greening, to renewable energy, to water-storing roads can have cascading benefits for resilient development.
Oppenheimer Impact Scholar Minda Cossa leads a project to improve adaptive capacity to climate change related hazards in coastal environments, in partnership with the African Climate and Development Initiative at the University of Cape Town. She is focusing on the communication of changing risks associated with sea level rise and cyclones in urban planning policy spaces in Maputo, Mozambique.
Minda’s project expands upon the previous research conducted by Masters student Emily Willoughby, which examined the challenges of communicating climate change risks for adaptation and planning in Maputo city.
Dr Peta Brom worked closely with Oppenheimer Associate Professor Andrew Cunliffe to advance a research agenda protecting and enhancing the provision of essential ecosystem services linked with nature-based solutions in African cities.
Her work integrates the legacies of planning systems, geospatial analysis of ecosystem services, and the multiple dimensions of “access” to unpack how users are (un)able to realise the ecosystem benefits provided by urban green space. These services are vital to the ‘liveability’ of cities in the near-future under projected climate change.
Oppenheimer Programme in African Landscape Systems (OPALS) 