The Climate Change Vulnerability and Risk Management Matrix for the Coastal Zone of The Gambia

Abstract

Global Climate Change is one of the dire challenges facing the international community today. Coastal zones are vulnerable to its impacts. An effective approach with long-term prospects in addressing climate change impacts is it's mainstreaming into development agenda of sectoral policies. A comprehensive risk and vulnerability assessment is a pre-requisite to ensure that the right adaptive response is taken for effective integration into developmental plans. The objective of this study is to evaluate and prioritize risks, vulnerability and adaptation issues of current and anticipated impacts of climate change on the coastal zone of The Gambia. The study will also give a methodological contribution for assessing risks, vulnerability and adaptation from the sub-national to local levels. The relevance of this study will be to create a link between the sub-national and local levels in order to facilitate the integration and mainstreaming of climate change into sectoral and local policies for more climate-resilient communities. This will aid in the promotion of strategic investment of constrained developmental resources to actualize successfully dynamic coping strategies, elude 'maladaptation' and less compelling responsive measures. A purposive expert sampling technique was used in selecting respondents for the study. The findings of the study reveal that by the end of the 21st century, the climatic variables likely to have the highest impact on the coastal zone of The Gambia are 'increased flood severity' and 'increased temperature'. The coastal zone of The Gambia showed a high vulnerability to these climate change variables. The suggested adaptive response in addressing the impacts of increased flood intensity in the study area includes; improving regulations for restricting agriculture and livestock grazing activities to improve land cover; strengthening of early-warning systems, among others. The suggested adaptive response in addressing the increase in temperature includes: increase crop diversification and rotation to reduce total crop failure; switching to drought-tolerant crop and animal species, among others.

Spatio-Temporal Trend Analysis of Rainfall and Temperature Extremes in the Vea Catchment, Ghana

“…This variability has increased since the 1950s, and particularly during the latest decade [1]. This is principally due to the increased concentration of anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as argued by some authors [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Global surface temperature has increased by 0.71 • C over the last century with significant warming observed in many regions [3].…”

“…This is principally due to the increased concentration of anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as argued by some authors [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Global surface temperature has increased by 0.71 • C over the last century with significant warming observed in many regions [3]. This increase in global mean surface temperature in recent times reveals more warming of land than the oceans with diverse consequences on the livelihood of people [3,9].…”

“…Global surface temperature has increased by 0.71 • C over the last century with significant warming observed in many regions [3]. This increase in global mean surface temperature in recent times reveals more warming of land than the oceans with diverse consequences on the livelihood of people [3,9]. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report [4] attests to the fact that there is the likelihood of increases in extreme climate events due to the observed global warming over recent decades.…”

Analysis of Farmers' Vulnerability to Climate Change in Niger State, Nigeria

“…Therefore, promotion of alternative sources of energy will contribute towards development aspirations of the study area in many important ways: (1). saving trees that would otherwise be cut down for charcoal or firewood production to increase carbon dioxide sequestration; (2).…”

“…Studies have shown that climate change has become a major threat to agriculture, particularly in developing countries [1][2][3]. Farmers in African countries have been identified as most vulnerable to climate change due to their low adaptive capacities [4][5][6].…”