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Lung health in Africa is of great public health concern. To exchange knowledge, communicate the latest scientific advances in lung health, build the capacity of young researchers, and provide a platform for networking of lung health stakeholders in Africa, the Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), in partnership with the Respiratory Society of Kenya organized and held the 3rd Biennial PATS congress, from June 7–10, 2023 in Mombasa, Kenya. There were a total of 30 conference sessions, which included six skills building workshops, two research dissemination workshops, six plenary sessions, and five each of pediatric, adult, and thoracic surgery symposia. A total of 60 abstracts were presented, including 27 oral abstracts and 33 posters. A wide range of issues for lung health in Africa emerged. These include the emerging role of the environment, especially climate change and global warming, on lung health, the threat posed by the use of tobacco and other nicotine products in Africa, the high burden of lung infections, insecurity of medical oxygen supply systems, and high burden of chronic respiratory disease. In this paper, we summarize the proceedings of this conference and draw lessons that can be used to advance lung health in the African continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncertainty arising from climate change poses a central challenge to the long‐term performance of many engineered water systems. Water supply infrastructure projects can leverage different types of flexibility, in planning, design, or operations, to adapt infrastructure systems in response to climate change over time. Both flexible planning and design enable future capacity expansion if‐and‐when needed, with flexible design proactively incorporating physical design changes that enable retrofits. All three forms of flexibility have not previously been analyzed together to explicitly assess their relative value in mitigating cost and water supply reliability risk. In this paper, we propose a new framework to evaluate combinations of flexible planning, design, and operations. We develop a nested stochastic dynamic optimization approach that jointly optimizes dam development and operating policies under dynamic climate uncertainty. We demonstrate this approach on a reservoir project near Mombasa, Kenya. Our results find that flexible operations have the greatest potential to reduce costs. Flexible design and flexible planning can amplify the value of flexible operations under higher discounting scenarios and when initial infrastructure capacities are undersized. This approach provides insight on the climate change and techno‐economic conditions under which flexible planning, design, and operations can be best leveraged individually or in combination to reduce climate change uncertainty risks in water supply infrastructure projects. Key Points: We develop a framework to compare the value of combinations of flexibility in water supply infrastructure planning, design, and operationsFlexible operations are more effective than flexible planning or design in addressing climate uncertainty in water‐limited environmentsFlexible planning and design are more useful when initial reservoir capacity is low, discounting is high, or the cost of shortages is high [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to provide an empirical application of the enhanced Regional Tourism Sustainable Adaptation Framework using a case study of Mombasa Kenya. Climate variability is a challenge to tourism destinations, especially coastal and Island destinations, categories under which Mombasa, our study site falls under. Mombasa has limited capacity to adapt to climate change considering its socio economic conditions and weak institutions, thus making it necessary to explore the possible sustainable pathways for the city using the enhanced Regional Tourism Sustainable Adaptation Framework. Earlier frameworks for tourism adaptation to climate change lacked focus on regional dynamics as well as sustainability aspects, and their implementation pose the risk of mal adaptation to some extent. Using secondary data and data from interviews with tourism stakeholders in Mombasa, the enhanced Regional Tourism Sustainable Adaptation Framework guides our assessment of vulnerability and resilience of the destination, as well as identification of region specific adaptation options for the city within the context of sustainable practice. Based on climate change perceived impacts, risks and vulnerability various adaptation options are presented and discussed as provided in literature. The usefulness of the framework in guiding regional tourism destination managers and policy makers in their pursuit for a regional adaptation options within the tourism sector in order to reduce destinations vulnerability, increase resilience and take advantage of opportunities presented by climate change is underscored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding public awareness about climate change is important in directing policy on adaptation and mitigation policies. This paper examines urban residents’ awareness and concern about climate change and their autonomous behaviour and mitigation measures in the coastal city of Mombasa through a survey of 290 subjects. The study established that most (96.6%) residents of the city are aware that climate change is taking place and link its causes mainly on deforestation, fuel combustion and nature but less to household activities and poor waste disposal. Although they were able to identify its consequences as an increase in average temperature, occurrence of infectious diseases and flooding, there are certain misconceptions such as ozone layer depletion (67.6%) and earthquake/tremor (12.1%). The study established that a number of residents affirmed some autonomous adaptive behaviour such as staying indoors during extreme temperatures and having an emergency kit at home. The results of the study demonstrate that awareness and concern about climate change had strongest effect on reduced energy consumption at home, and that the strongest barrier to taking mitigation steps is lack of necessary skills. The study concludes by recommending sensitization of urban public on the negative contributions of household activities and poor waste disposal to the concentration of greenhouse gases and the need to focus campaigns on personal mitigation activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]