| Project Detail |
Forecasting and mitigating the impact of humid heatwaves across Africa
Heatwaves are becoming more frequent, intense and prolonged in many parts of the world. With the support of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions programme, the AFRIHEAT project aims to shed light on the impact of heatwaves in Africa, a region where little research has been conducted despite its vulnerability to extreme weather conditions. Heatwaves have been found to have severe consequences, including reduced crop yield, productivity, and educational performance, as well as an increased risk of wildfire and mortality. The project will focus on studying humid heatwaves, which are particularly dangerous, and aims to develop an early warning system. Research outcomes will contribute to forecasting and mitigating the impact of humid heatwaves across Africa.
Heatwaves, the occurrence of extremely high temperature over a prolonged period, have been identified to cause death, reduce educational performance, weaken worker productivity, increase the risk of wildfire, and affect crop productivity. The occurrence of heatwaves has been increasing both in frequency, intensity and duration in the recent past climate and a robust increase in heatwave frequency, intensity and duration is projected in future climate scenarios. When accompanied by moist air, heatwaves can be even more lethal. During such humid heatwave (HHW) events, the physiological mechanism that allows the human body to cool down through transpiration is impaired. Previous regional research on heat stress focused mainly on Europe, South Asia, and the Persian Gulf, even though global studies also identify sub-Saharan Africa as a hotspot for heatwave extremes. Consequently, very little is known about humid heatwave occurrence and impacts in Africa due to the lack of dense meteorological networks and a consistent reporting framework. This project aims to uncover the structure, dynamics and impacts of HHW across Africa under present and future climate, and to translate this knowledge into actionable information for disaster management agencies. To achieve this objective, I will join the BCLIMATE research group under the Department of Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering at the VUB. The host supervisor and the BCLIMATE research team have a world-leading reputation in climate extremes. Building on the tools of European Unions Copernicus Climate Change Service, the research outcomes will contribute to the forecasting of deadly heat stress across Africa and develop an early warning system to reduce HHW vulnerability. During my secondment at the UN office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) in Brussels, I will develop an Early Warning System (EWS) to reduce on-the-ground HHW vulnerability. |
