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Globally, climate change remains one of the most pressing challenges, and it is also an obstacle to the fundamental achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The purpose of the study was to examine the determinants of small-scale farmers' participation in social capital networks to enhance adoption of climate change adaptation strategies. Multistage and purposive sampling were used to carry out the study. A cross-sectional research design was used to carry out the study and structured questionnaires were used as a data collection tool. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Binary Logit model, and the Ordered Logit model. The findings of the study show that gender, household size, age, marital status, education, and employment status affect a farmer's participation in social capital networks. The results also show that household size, employment status, and income level affect the extent of participation in social networks. As the paper is the first to look at the determinants of the participation of farmers in social capital networks in Eastern Cape, the results are of paramount importance to policy formulators in order to formulate policies that will encourage farmers to join localized farmer-based social capital networks to adopt climate change adaption measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmers in Africa, including those in South Africa, rely on rain-fed agriculture, which exposes them to the risks of agricultural drought. Agricultural drought has become a major threat to agricultural production, including the extreme mortality of livestock in recent years, thus negatively impacting household food security. Hence, this paper is aimed at (i) assessing the coping strategies employed by smallholding livestock-farming households during food insecurity shocks, and (ii) assessing the relationship between coping strategies and agricultural drought resilience to food insecurity in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Interviews, more specifically survey interviews, were conducted with 217 smallholder livestock farmers. The data was analyzed using the agricultural drought resilience index (ADRI), the household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS), and structural equation modeling. Smallholder livestock farming households utilized various coping strategies, ranging from selling livestock (21%) to leasing out their farms (1%). The coping strategies of farming households included using alternative land (20%), storing food (20%), requesting feed for their animals (16%), searching for alternative employment (6%), migrating (6%), raising drought-tolerant breeds (5%), receiving relief grants (3%) and using savings and investments (2%). A statistically significant relationship between coping strategies and agricultural drought resilience to food insecurity means that these strategies have important policy implications. Implementing strategies that encourage households to protect their livelihood and utilize their assets (selling livestock) to increase their resilience is crucial for reducing food insecurity and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end hunger and poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled tourism businesses to rapidly adjust operations in newer and more resilient ways as firms have to change priorities and respond to challenges, including of shifts in consumer demand. Extant research on tourism business responses and adaptations to COVID-19 highlights the significance of organizational resilience and ability of businesses to respond to uncertainty. Using a qualitative approach this paper investigates tourism business responses in Sout h Africa, seemingly the country worst hit on the African continent by the COVID-19 crisis. The research analyses tourism business responses occurring in one of South Africa's tourism-dependent areas and thus most exposed to the radical effects of COVID-19. Key findings are of the self-reliant character of the community of tourism enterprises in and around Overstrand cluster in the Western Cape. Product diversification, reductions of prices, reduced staffing, changed marketing, greater inter -enterprise cooperation are several of the most significant business adjustments undertaken. With the negative financial impacts of COVID-19 on local tourism enterprises exacerbated by South African government measures for alcohol bans and beach closures there is evidence of a disconnect and lack of trust between the area's local businesses and national government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In emerging tourism scholarship around COVID-19 one of the major clusters of research surrounds issues of adaptation. Tourism businesses are compelled to adapt to shifts in consumer demand as well as government regulatory changes. The objective in this paper is to investigate the responses and adaptations to the impacts of COVID-19 of tourism businesses in South Africa's most tourism-dependent locality. The research reports on 20 qualitative interviews undertaken with a cross-section of tourism enterprises in Bela-Bela Local Municipality, Limpopo province, which is overwhelmingly oriented towards the market of domestic tourism. Major results are local businesses are financially negatively impacted by the subdued nature of domestic leisure travel together with the near total collapse of business travel as well as the imperative to conform to new COVID-19 safety and health protocols. Adaptive responses have included downsizing of businesses, including worker retrenchments, pricecutting, limited initiatives towards product diversification, energetic social media marketing and repurposing of properties. Key challenges for Bela-Bela tourism enterprises relate to immediate financial issues and most especially in the context that minimal support has been provided by national government to assist their business survival. Future business prospects are not viewed favourably such that business closures and a hollowing out of the tourism enterprise base accompanying job losses in tourism appear inevitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the design and application of a benefit-cost model to the city of Durban’s (South Africa) climate change adaptation options. The approach addresses the inability to compile an accurate damage-cost function for economic prioritizations at the local level. It proposes that uncertainty over climate impacts and the efficacy of adaptation responses, in conjunction with the lack of economic data, high levels of economic informality and inequality make it difficult to link adaptation efforts to positive GDP impact in Durban. Instead, the research based its calculations of “benefits” on the number of people impacted and the extent of the welfare benefits imparted by the respective adaptation efforts. It also took into account the uncertainty over future events, capacity constraints, priorities of decision makers and the risk of maladaptation. The results were reported as benefit-cost ratios for 16 clusters of interventions (many of which were primarily the responsibility of one municipal department or agency) in each of four future scenarios (defined by minor or major climate change and weak or strong socio-institutional capacity). The paper presents and discusses the benefit-cost ratios and total benefits for each of the intervention clusters in each of the future scenarios. It emphasizes how these are influenced by choices of time frames. It also highlights how the most efficient interventions across all futures and time frames tend to be socio-institutional – for instance the creation of a cross-sectoral disaster management forum, sea level rise preparedness and early warning system, and creating climate change adaptation capacity within the water services unit. Ecosystem-based adaptation measures had moderate benefit-cost ratios, probably because in Durban the land that needs to be purchased for this is relatively expensive. Infrastructure-based clusters generally had the lowest benefit-cost ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environment & Urbanization is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Reporting to the public on climate change impacts, adaptation, and mitigation requires journalists to be equipped to engage with a wide range of technical content in order to communicate it in an accessible and engaging way. Recognizing the need for journalists from a wide range of backgrounds, including those from community newspapers and radio stations in South Africa, to be able to undertake this task, the South African Department of Environment Affairs in partnership with GIZ commissioned the authors to develop and deliver a four-day climate change reporting training programme. This paper presents an overview of the structure and content of the course, and details the reflections after undertaking such an endeavor. Based on the lessons learned, and an awareness that this kind of training may take place in the context where working community-level journalists may have a low knowledge base (of both the journalistic craft, as well as the content of climate science) the following recommendations emerge: scientific training may need to be combined with basic journalistic training (depending on the participants); learning-by-doing is central to journalists building their capacity in climate reporting training; and mother-tongue delivery of material is critical to the success of such technical training courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urgent need to reconfigure and transform urban areas to consume fewer resources, emit less pollution, minimize greenhouse gas production, protect natural ecosystems and increase the adaptive capacity to deal with climate risks is widely recognized. The implementation of improved sustainability measures in cities requires integrated thinking that encompasses a whole range of urban functions, often implying a major restructuring of urban energy systems, transport and the built environment, as well as a new approach to the planning and management of natural systems that service urban areas. Many local governments have a limited capacity to deal with such complex and interrelated problems, and this hampers their ability to deal with climate change. With these issues in mind, teams of scientists, practitioners and stakeholders in Durban (led by eThekwini Municipality) and London (led by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research) developed city-scale integrated assessment modelling tools that represent interactions between different urban functions and objectives by linking climate change issues to broader agendas such as spatial planning. This paper reviews each integrated assessment tool, and critically analyzes their effectiveness in terms of technical approach, extent to which they meet policy needs, role of stakeholders in model development and application, barriers to their uptake and the value of and effort required for integration. While these integrated assessment tools did not provide the detailed design information sought by some decision makers, importantly they have stimulated stakeholders to think strategically and hold cross-sectoral conversations around implementing sustainability measures. Despite the technical and institutional challenges associated with the development and uptake of an integrated assessment model, we conclude that they do contribute to the quest for urban sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Simple Summary: The Dorper sheep breed was created to thrive in harsh environments in South Africa. Two breed variants were developed in the selection process. The breed gained popularity and was exported to several regions of the world where it is reported to be doing better than the purported locally adapted sheep breeds. To enhance the performance of other native sheep breeds, Dorper is widely utilized in crossbreeding with native breeds. There has not been any research done to examine the genomic status of Dorper in South Africa and Dorper in other places outside of South Africa. The genomic architecture of white Dorper and Dorper from South Africa and Hungary are compared in this study. White Dorper, Dorper, and Dorpers from South Africa and Hungary all have significantly distinct genomes. Different environmental factors and variations in coat color could be the cause of the genetic variations. Dorper sheep was developed for meat production in arid and semi-arid regions under extensive production systems in South Africa. Two variants with distinct head and neck colors were bred during their development process. White Dorper have a white coat while Dorper have a black head and neck. Both variants have grown in popularity around the world. Therefore, understanding the genomic architecture between South African Dorpers and Dorper populations adapted to other climatic regions, as well as genomic differences between Dorper and White Dorper variants is vital for their molecular management. Using the ovine 50K SNP chip, this study compared the genetic architecture of Dorper variants between populations from South Africa and Hungary. The Dorper populations in both countries had high genetic diversity levels, although Dorper in Hungary showed high levels of inbreeding. White Dorpers from both countries were genetically closely related, while Dorpers were distantly related according to principal component analysis and neighbor-joining tree. Additionally, whereas all groups displayed unique selection signatures for local adaptation, Dorpers from Hungary had a similar linkage disequilibrium decay. Environmental differences and color may have influenced the genetic differentiation between the Dorpers. For their molecular management and prospective genomic selection, it is crucial to understand the Dorper sheep's genomic architecture, and the results of this study can be interpreted as a step in this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally extreme weather events are experienced most acutely in cities. While formal settlements can respond to such events, informal settlements are often vulnerable and illprepared. Sub-Saharan Africa is rapidly urbanising with informal settlements that require effective climate change adaptation measures. Two climate adaptation strategies for informal dwellings are considered for their success under 2100 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate scenarios. Using existing data collected from informal dwellings in South Africa, the findings from a digital simulation study reveal that cool roof paints can currently lower excessive heat stress conditions by 42-63% when applied to high thermal mass dwellings with poorly insulated lightweight corrugated sheeting roofing. However, for the future 2100 climate scenarios this strategy only lowers excessive heat stress conditions by 12-17%. This calls for the development of integrated multifaceted heat stress adaptation strategies for informal settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has caused substantial losses, especially to smallholder farmers whose main source of livelihood is derived from agriculture. Climate change impacts can be reduced by enhancing coping and adaptation strategies. This study explores the coping and adaptation strategies of smallholder farming communities in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. As part of the assessment and analysis of drought, multiple sources of data were consulted, including 200 households' socio-economic information, focus group discussions, and interviews. Extreme drought events are increasing, impacting negatively on smallholder farmers' livelihoods. Adaptations to changing weather patterns were observed in smallholder farmers through planting early-maturing plants and drought-tolerant crops, altering planting dates, crop diversification, and irrigating in addition to non-farming activities. There is a need to enhance these context-based adaptation strategies to reduce risks and vulnerability and increase household resilience. Several socioeconomic developments and significant ecological deterioration appear to limit opportunities for long-term adaptation to drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significance: South Africa is wrestling with increasing climate change impacts and how to respond. The 2022 IPCC Working Group II Report synthesises the latest evidence on climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation, and what this means for climate-resilient development. In this commentary, South African authors on the Report reflect on its key findings and the implications for the country. The commentary highlights challenges and opportunities for cities, the food-water-energy-nature nexus, knowledge and capacity strengthening (which includes climate services, climate change literacy, and indigenous and local knowledge), climate finance, equity, justice and social protection, and climate-resilient development pathways. The piece closes with a reflection on research gaps requiring attention and the importance of urgently ramping up climate action to secure a liveable future for all South Africans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Improving the quality of health care is a national priority in many countries to help reduce unacceptable levels of variation in health system practices, performance and outcomes. In 2012, South Africa introduced district-based clinical specialist teams (DCSTs) to enhance clinical governance at the lowest level of the health system. This paper examines the expectations and responses of local health system actors in the introduction and early implementation of this new DCST role.Methods: Between 2013 and 2015, we carried out 258 in-depth interviews and three focus group discussions with managers, implementers and intended beneficiaries of the DCST innovation. Data were collected in three districts using a theory of change approach for programme evaluation. We also embarked on role charting through policy document review. Guided by role theory, we analysed data thematically and compared findings across the three districts.Results: We found role ambiguity and conflict in the implementation of the new DCST role. Individual, organisational and systemic factors influenced actors' expectations, behaviours, and adjustments to the new clinical governance role. Local contextual factors affected the composition and scope of DCSTs in each site, while leadership and accountability pathways shaped system adaptiveness across all three. Two key contributions emerge; firstly, the responsiveness of the system to an innovation requires time in planning, roll-out, phasing, and monitoring. Secondly, the interconnectedness of quality improvement processes adds complexity to innovation in clinical governance and may influence the (in) effectiveness of service delivery.Conclusion: Role ambiguity and conflict in the DCST role at a system-wide level suggests the need for effective management of implementation systems. Additionally, improving quality requires anticipating and addressing a shortage of inputs, including financing for additional staff and skills for health care delivery and careful integration of health care policy guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines climate adaptation strategies of farmers in the Limpopo Basin of South Africa. Survey results show that while many farmers noticed long-term changes in temperature and precipitation, most could not take remedial action. Lack of access to credit and water were cited as the main factors inhibiting adaptation. Common adaptation responses reported included diversifying crops, changing varieties and planting dates, using irrigation, and supplementing livestock feed. A multinomial logit analysis of climate adaptation responses suggests that access to water, credit, extension services and off-farm income and employment opportunities, tenure security, farmers' asset base and farming experience are key to enhancing farmers' adaptive capacity. This implies that appropriate government interventions to improve farmers' access to and the status of these factors are needed for reducing vulnerability of farmers to climate adversities in such arid areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environment & Urbanization is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Rates of adolescent HIV and unintended pregnancy in southern Africa are amongst the highest in the world. Gender-transformative interventions that address underlying gender inequalities and engage both males and females have been emphasised by the World Health Organisation, amongst others, to target prevention. However, few such gender-transformative interventions have been rigorously developed or evaluated. Objective: To expedite potential impact and reduce development costs, we conducted a needs assessment to inform the co-design, in consultation with local stakeholders, of adapted versions of an existing gender-transformative Relationships and Sexuality Education intervention for use in South Africa and Lesotho. Methods: Adaptation of the intervention was guided by a modified version of Intervention Mapping (IM). This process involved consultation with separate adolescent, community and expert advisory groups and a collaboratively conducted needs assessment, which drew on focus groups with adolescents (8 groups, n = 55) and adults (4 groups, n = 22) in South Africa and Lesotho, and was informed by our systematic review of the literature on the determinants of condom use among adolescents in the region. Results: The findings clarified how the intervention should be adapted, which individual- and environmental-level determinants of condom use to target, and actions for facilitating successful adoption, evaluation and implementation in the new settings. Conclusions: The IM approach allows for a systematic appraisal of whether components and processes of an existing intervention are appropriate for a new target population before costly evaluation studies are conducted. The findings will be of interest to those wishing to rigourously develop and evaluate gender-transformative interventions engaging men to improve health for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite increased prevention efforts, HIV remains the leading cause of death among adolescent girls and young women in South Africa. Although research indicates important determinants of HIV acquisition at the individual and interpersonal levels, structural-level stigma and discrimination continue to be critical barriers to reaching and retaining this key population for HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health services. Innovative and multilevel interventions are needed that can address the intersectional structural and gender issues that young women face, including stigma, alcohol and drug use, gender-based violence, and other risk factors when seeking health services. Oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) taken daily has been found to be an effective biomedical HIV prevention tool. Testing a comprehensive gender-focused biobehavioral HIV prevention intervention that is inclusive of social ecological determinants, such as stigma and discrimination reduction in clinics, is critical for reducing HIV among adolescent girls and young women.Methods: This project involves both a Community Collaborative Board and a Youth Advisory Board in helping to adapt the Young Women's Health CoOp intervention and the Health Policy Project (HPP) Stigma and Discrimination (S&D) reduction training curriculum to the setting and population. This study uses a two-by-two factorial design with stratified randomization of 12 clinics, each with distinct catchment areas. The Young Women's Health CoOp addresses substance use, sexual risk, violence prevention and sexual negotiation, condom demonstration, and problem solving with the following additions: knowledge of PrEP, the importance of PrEP adherence, and sexual and reproductive health. Adolescent girls and young women will be assessed with behavioral and biological measures at baseline, 3-, 6- and 9-month follow-up. The S&D reduction training is provided for all staff in the clinics randomized to this condition. Clinic staff will be surveyed at baseline, 4- and 8-month follow-up. We will recruit 900 AGYW from communities in the 12 clinic catchment areas.Discussion: The study findings, if efficacious across the outcomes, will be incorporated into the gender-focused HIV prevention intervention toolkit and disseminated to inform multilevel prevention approaches.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov. Identifier: NCT04048551 (Recruiting). Registered: August 7, 2019 (Retrospectively registered). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sahara J: Journal of the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Fishers in the small-scale, commercial linefishery in the southern Cape, South Africa, are exposed to variability and change in the marine social-ecological system of which they are a part. Faced with multi-scalar changes within this complex system, fishers employ a wide range of strategies in reaction to change. As part of a broader study of stressors that bring about change in these systems, this contribution examines the fishers' responses to these changes and is based on a participant-led, semistructured interview process of skippers/boat owners, crew, processors and spouses/partners, in six communities in the southern Cape region, and has been supplemented with appropriate secondary data. The results are discussed using a resilience framework. The data were initially considered thematically by stressor, but results identified that a place-based analysis was equally important. Three major groupings were identified: (1) fishers who adapt and show clear business-orientation, (2) fishers who cope, and (3) fishers who react and are thus caught in a poverty trap. In addition to place-specific history, local feedback loops and indirect effects need to be better accounted for to understand these responses to change at various scales. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the basis of scenario planning in the region. Significance: • Analysis of responses to change strategies provides insight into resilience displayed as well as costs and benefits of strategies. • The description of strategies provides valuable insights into the decision-making processes in linefishery in the southern Cape. • Cognitive and reflexive decision-making processes are shaped by individuals' and communities' experiences of past and present. • Practical implications of actions are not always the overriding concern in decision-making, which underscores the importance and influence of culture. • These results provide important insights into a system that is not well described, and highlight knowledge gaps that require further context-specific research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Ecosystems face numerous well-documented threats from climate change. The well-being of people also is threatened by climate change, most prominently by reduced food security. Human adaptation to food scarcity, including shifting agricultural zones, will create new threats for natural ecosystems. We investigated how shifts in crop suitability because of climate change may overlap currently protected areas (PAs) and priority sites for PA expansion in South Africa. Predicting the locations of suitable climate conditions for crop growth will assist conservationists and decision-makers in planning for climate change. Location: South Africa. Methods: We modelled climatic suitability in 2055 for maize and wheat cultivation, two extensively planted, staple crops, and overlaid projected changes with PAs and PA expansion priorities. Results: Changes in winter climate could make an additional 2 million ha of land suitable for wheat cultivation, while changes in summer climate could expand maize suitability by up to 3.5 million ha. Conversely, 3 million ha of lands currently suitable for wheat production are predicted to become climatically unsuitable, along with 13 million ha for maize. At least 328 of 834 (39%) PAs are projected to be affected by altered wheat or maize suitability in their buffer zones. Main conclusions: Reduced crop suitability and food scarcity in subsistence areas may lead to the exploitation of PAs for food and fuel. However, if reduced crop suitability leads to agricultural abandonment, this may afford opportunities for ecological restoration. Expanded crop suitability in PA buffer zones could lead to additional isolation of PAs if portions of newly suitable land are converted to agriculture. These results suggest that altered crop suitability will be widespread throughout South Africa, including within and around lands identified as conservation priorities. Assessing how climate change will affect crop suitability near PAs is a first step towards proactively identifying potential conflicts between human adaptation and conservation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data on 386 species with fire-stimulated flowering (fsf) in Australasia and South Africa/Madagascar were collated to show that they occur under a wide range of fire regimes, with 71% confined to the mediterranean-climate regions. About 40% only flower up to 2 years after fire (obligate), while the rest continue at a low rate until the next fire (facultative). Peak flowering occurs 5-18 months after fire in the mediterranean regions but at 1-7 months in savannas. Fsf is recorded in 34 families, headed by terrestrial orchids (45% of species), spread throughout the seed-plant phylogeny from cycads to daisies. Tuberous geophytes (essentially orchids) dominate (51%), but other resprouting growth forms include lignotuberous shrubs and forbs, rhizomatous and bunch grasses, leaf succulents, grasstrees, epicormic trees, and hemiparasites. Most have wind-dispersed diaspores (72%), store their diaspores in the soil (93%), and seeds that do not germinate until the next fire (72%). Fsf in association with resprouting takes advantage of optimal resources and minimal competition for growth and reproduction, conditions that favor wind dispersal and maximize the interval for seed accumulation before the next fire and build-up of fire-tolerant organs. Reduced herbivory has little role in accounting for its benefits. The proximal causes of fsf center around cueing factors (direct effects such as ethylene), resource factors (direct and indirect effects, e.g., extra nutrients), and predisposing factors (circumstantial effects, e.g., fire interval). The evolutionary history of fsf has been explored recently in orchids, proteas, blood roots, droseras, and mistletoes and shown to stretch back over a period of at least 50 million years, indicating that flowering in many groups has a long association with fire as an agent of natural selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Climate change has increased the frequency of extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall leading to floods in several regions. In Africa, rural communities are more vulnerable to flooding, particularly those that dwell in low altitude areas or near rivers and those regions affected by tropical storms. This study examined flood vulnerability in three rural villages in South Africa's northern Limpopo Province and how communities are building resilience and coping with the hazard. These villages lie at the foot of the north-eastern escarpment, and are often exposed to frequent rainfall enhanced by orographic factors. Although extreme rainfall events are rare in the study area, we analyzed daily rainfall and showed how heavy rainfall of short duration can lead to flooding using case studies. Historical floods were also mapped using remote sensing via the topographical approach and two types of flooding were identified, i.e., those due to extreme rainfall and those due to poor drainage or blocked drainage channels. A field survey was also conducted using questionnaires administered to samples of affected households to identify flood vulnerability indicators and adaptation strategies. Key informant interviews were held with disaster management authorities to provide additional information on flood indicators. Subsequently, a flood vulnerability index was computed to measure the extent of flood vulnerability of the selected communities and it was found that all three villages have a 'vulnerability to floods' level, considered a medium level vulnerability. The study also details temporary and long-term adaptation strategies/actions employed by respondents and interventions by local authorities to mitigate the impacts of flooding. Adaptation strategies range from digging furrows to divert water and temporary relocations, to constructing a raised patio around the house. Key recommendations include the need for public awareness; implementation of a raft of improvements and a sustainable infrastructure maintenance regime; integration of modern mitigations with local indigenous knowledge; and development of programs to ensure resilience through incorporation of Integrated Development Planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)—including drainage-services—is essential for public health and socio-economic development, but access remains inadequate and inequitable in low- to middle-income countries such as South Africa. In South Africa, rural areas and small towns generally depend on a limited and climate-sensitive economic base (e.g., farming), and they have a limited capacity and are located in areas where transport challenges can increase WASH access risks. Climate change shifts hydrological cycles, which can worsen WASH access and increase susceptibility to the interlinked impacts of droughts and flooding in already vulnerable regions. We adopted a transdisciplinary approach to explore the needs, barriers, and vulnerabilities with respect to WASH in rural areas and small towns in South Africa—using two case studies to explore climate risk and vulnerability assessment (CRVA) in one rural village in the northern Limpopo province and a small town in the Western Cape province. This holistic approach considered natural (environment and climate) and socio-economic (economic, social, governance, and political) factors and how they interplay in hampering access to WASH. Extreme weather events characterized by frequent and intense droughts or floods aggravate surface and groundwater availability and damage water infrastructure while threatening agriculture-dependent livelihoods. The lack of reliable transport infrastructure increases risks posed by flooding as roads to vital supplies are prone to damage. High inequality linked to rising unemployment and the Apartheid legacy of a segregated service delivery system result in inequitable access to WASH services. The intertwined ways in which natural elements and historical, social, economic, governance, and policy aspects are changing in South Africa increase WASH vulnerability in rural areas and small towns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mopani District Municipality in the northeast of South Africa is largely semi-arid and frequently affected by meteorological droughts. The recent 2015/16 event had devastating impacts on water levels, crop yields, livestock herds and rural livelihoods. We investigated the nature of the drought hazard; its impacts, including vulnerability of rural communities in Mopani District and adaptation strategies they have employed to cope with drought. A mixed methods approach with both quantitative and qualitative datasets was used. The district was divided into two distinct climatic areas: the drier eastern lowveld and the wetter western bushveld. Questionnaires were administered among community members whilst key informant interviews were conducted among relevant government and municipal officials. Climate data was used to characterize historical drought using a Standardized Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Index whilst vegetation anomaly maps were used to demonstrate impacts. Spatially distinct patterns of drought conditions were evident with harsh and dry conditions towards the east. It was found that nearly half the time there is some form of drought or another in the district mostly linked to the remote El Nino phenomenon. In several areas, rain-fed agriculture is no longer tenable, with a direct impact on rural livelihoods. A Household Vulnerability Index determined variable levels of vulnerability such that different strategies are employed to adapt to drought some of which cause environmental problems. Local government intervention strategies include supply of seeds and fertilisers, providing cheap fodder and supplying water using trucks. The findings of this study contribute to disaster risk reduction efforts in a region that is highly vulnerable to current and future climate-risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]