Understanding Risk for Climate Change Adaptation (URiCCA)

About this CARP project

The URiCCA project is being undertaken in collaboration with the Western Cape Disaster Management Centre by researchers from both Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town. It aims to support more informed decision-making on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation by combining a retrospective analysis of the lessons from previous disasters and developing and piloting an event surveillance methodology for systematically collecting data on disasters and high-impact climate-related events. The project seeks to strengthen the evidence base for climate change adaptation in South Africa’s Western Cape province through nested research activities focusing on gathering lessons learned from detailed post-event reviews of climate-related severe-weather events and developing and piloting a hazard event surveillance methodology for the province.

Study site

Western Cape Province, South Africa.

 Main Research Questions

• What types of severe weather and climate-related disasters have occurred in the Western Cape in the last ten years?
• What were the features and impacts of these events, and what lessons can be learned for reducing risk and strengthening the response to severe weather and climate-related disasters?
• Can we feasibly develop and implement an event surveillance system to monitor and document declared and undeclared disasters in the Western Cape?
• What would a surveillance system look like, and what is needed to implement such a system in the Western Cape?
• What information or data is available, and where are the gaps?

Developing a comprehensive and longitudinal dataset on disasters is a critical first step in supporting more effective decision-making on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. This project begins to do this by looking back on the lessons that can be learned from previous disasters and developing a forward-looking methodology for collecting information on the frequency, nature, and impact of disasters in the Western Cape.