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Climate adaptation strengthens and builds the resilience of health systems to future climate-related shocks. Adaptation strategies and policies are necessary tools for governments to address the long-term impacts of climate change and enable the health system to respond to current impacts such as extreme weather events. Since 2011 South Africa has national climate change policies and adaptation strategies, yet there is uncertainty about: how these policies and plans are executed; the extent to which health policies include adaptation; and the extent of policy coherence across sectors and governance levels. A policy document analysis was conducted to examine how South African climate change, development and health policy documents reflect the health adaptation response across national and Western Cape levels and to assess the extent of coherence across key health and environment sector policy documents, including elements to respond to health-related climate risks, that can support implementation. Our findings show that overall there is incoherence in South African climate adaptation within health policy documents. Although health adaptation measures are somewhat coherent in national level policies, there is limited coherence within Western Cape provincial level documents and limited discussion on climate adaptation, especially for health. Policies reflect formal decisions and should guide decision-makers and resourcing, and sectoral policies should move beyond mere acknowledgement of adaptation responses to a tailored plan of actions that are institutionalized and location and sector specific. Activities beyond documents also impact the coherence and implementation of climate adaptation for health in South Africa. Clear climate risk-specific documents for the health sector would provide a stronger plan to support the implementation of health adaptation and contribute to building health system's resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents continuous, high resolution fossil pollen and microcharcoal records from Bo Langvlei, a lake in the Wilderness Embayment on South Africa's southern Cape coast. Spanning the past ~1300 years and encompassing the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA; c. AD 950–1250) and the Little Ice Age (LIA; c. AD 1300–1850), these records provide a rare southern African perspective on past temperature, moisture and vegetation change during these much debated periods of the recent geological past. Considered together with other records from the Wilderness Embayment, we conclude that conditions in the region during the MCA chronozone were – in the context of the last 1300 years – likely relatively dry (reduced levels of Afrotemperate forest pollen) and perhaps slightly cooler (increased percentages of Stoebe -type pollen) than present. The most significant phase of forest expansion, and more humid conditions, occurred during the transition between the MCA and the most prominent cooling phase of the LIA. The LIA is clearly identified at this locality as a period of cool, dry conditions between c. AD 1600 and 1850. The mechanisms driving the changes observed in the Bo Langvlei pollen record appear to be generally linked to changes in temperature, and changes in the influence of tropical circulation systems. During warmer periods, moisture availability was higher at Bo Langvlei, and rainfall was perhaps less seasonal. During colder periods, precipitation resulting from tropical disturbances was more restricted, resulting in drier conditions. While increased precipitation has been reported during the LIA from Verlorenvlei in the Western Cape as a result of an equatorward displacement of the westerly storm-track at this time, the opposing response at Bo Langvlei suggests that any increased influence of westerlies was insufficient to compensate for the concurrent reduction in tropical/local rainfall in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of African Journal of Ecology 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-induced extreme weather events have been at their worst increase in the past decade (2010–2020) across Africa and globally. This has proved disruptive to global socio-economic activities. One of the challenges that has been faced in this regard is the increased coastal flooding of cities. This study examined the trends and impacts of coastal flooding in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Making use of archival climate data and primary data from key informants and field observations, it emerged that there is a statistically significant increase in the frequency of flooding and consequent human and economic losses from such in the coastal cities of the province. Flooding in urban areas of the Western Cape is a factor of human and natural factors ranging from extreme rainfall, usually caused by persistent cut off-lows, midlatitude cyclones, cold fronts and intense storms. Such floods become compounded by poor drainage caused by vegetative overgrowth on waterways and land pollution that can be traced to poor drainage maintenance. Clogging of waterways and drainage systems enhances the risk of flooding. Increased urbanisation, overpopulation in some areas and non-adherence to environmental laws results in both the affluent and poor settling on vulnerable ecosystems. These include coastal areas, estuaries, and waterways, and this worsens the risk of flooding. The study recommends a comprehensive approach to deal with factors that increase the risk of flooding as informed by the provisions of both the Sustainable Development Goals framework and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 in a bid to de-risking human settlement in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipalities represent a key opportunity for implementing local adaptation to the impacts of climate change. Most research has focused on the barriers to climate change adaptation, and little research exists that considers the conditions under which a municipality is able to initiate the process of mainstreaming climate adaptation. Through a case study of two municipalities in the Western Cape of South Africa, this paper identifies the factors that enable action to be taken at the local government level. The presence of dedicated environmental champions is key, particularly within political leadership. Experiencing the costs of climate change often provides the strongest initial catalyst for action and is aided by the recognition that the local environment has value. Access to a knowledge base, the availability of resources, political stability and the presence of dense social networks all positively affect adaptation mainstreaming. It is these enabling factors that other government levels and stakeholders need to support with different interventions. We draw attention to two under-researched topics, the effect of political instability on municipal functioning and the effects of social network characteristics on facilitating institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The association between various meteorological parameters and crime is well-established in developed contexts. In contrast in this study, we investigated the association between three weather parameters (temperature, relative humidity and rainfall) and three categories of crime in the developing township of Khayelitsha, in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Distributed lag non-linear modelling was used to identify temporal relationships between temperature, relative humidity and rainfall, and violent, property and sexual crime over a 10-year period (2006–2016). We found hot days (defined as ≥ 25 °C) increased the cumulative relative risk of violent crime by up to 32% but were also found to be associated with a lagged increase in violent crime for at least a week thereafter. On very cold days (defined as ≤ 7 ∘ C ), the cumulative relative risk of property crime increased by up to 50% whereas on very rainy days (defined as ≥ 20 mm ) the risk of property crime surprisingly increased by 40%. These findings provide some additional evidence for the relationship between the atmospheric environment and human behaviour in a developing context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal performance traits are regularly used to make forecasts of the responses of ectotherms to anthropogenic environmental change, but such forecasts do not always differentiate between fundamental and realised thermal niches.Here we determine the relative extents to which variation in the fundamental and realised thermal niches accounts for current variation in species abundance and occupancy and assess the effects of niche‐choice on future‐climate response estimations.We investigated microclimate and macroclimate temperatures alongside abundance, occupancy, critical thermal limits and foraging activity of 52 ant species (accounting for >95% individuals collected) from a regional assemblage from across the Western Cape Province, South Africa, between 2003 and 2014.Capability of a species to occupy sites experiencing the most extreme temperatures, coupled with breadth of realised niche, explained most deviance in occupancy (up to 75%), while foraging temperature range and body mass explained up to 50.5% of observed variation in mean species abundance.When realised niches are used to forecast responses to climate change, large positive and negative effects among species are predicted under future conditions, in contrast to the forecasts of minimal impacts on all species that are indicated by fundamental niche predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ostrich: The Journal of African Ornithology is the property of Taylor & Francis 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.)

The devastating socioeconomic impacts of recent droughts in the Western Cape have intensified the quest for future drought mitigation measures. While ongoing global warming may increase atmospheric evaporative demand and worsen drought conditions, most studies on drought in the Western Cape have overlooked the role of potential evapotranspiration (PET). The present study examines the role of PET on future drought characteristics, focusing on four river catchments. Two drought indices, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), were analysed. The capability of the Co‐ordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment simulations to reproduce the drought characteristics was evaluated by comparing present‐day climate simulations with observations. The impacts of different global warming levels (GWLs) on the SPI and SPEI projections were assessed using self‐organizing map (SOM) classifications. The results project that a robust drying signal across the Western Cape, but the magnitudes of the projections, which vary across the river catchments, increase with the GWLs. The changes in the drought intensity and frequency are weaker when using the SPI than the SPEI, suggesting that SPI projections may underestimate the influence of global warming on drought because they do not account for the influence of PET. The SOM classification confirms the differences between the two drought indices reveals the drought patterns that are not seen in the drought ensemble means. Nevertheless, the study underscores the need to mitigate future drought impacts over the Western Cape, but with careful consideration on the drought index used in characterizing the droughts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an 8000-year biomarker and stable carbon isotope record from the Verlorenvlei Estuary, South Africa. We assessed how leaf wax lipids, insoluble macromolecular organic matter, bulk C/N data and compound-specific stable carbon isotopes were linked to the site's palynological record and to evidence for regional sea level and environmental change. Down-core trends in bulk δC are closely coupled to trends in pollen types from saline-tolerant taxa. These trends are mirrored by variations in the incorporation of reduced sulphur into macromolecular organic matter. This process, quantified with the thiophene ratio, is closely associated with periods of higher sea level 8,000-4,300 cal yr BP. We propose the thiophene ratio is a proxy for relative marine influence within (peri) estuarine sediments. All measured variables indicate differences between early-middle Holocene (8,000-4,300 cal BP) and late Holocene conditions at Verlorenvlei. The former period was more saline and preserves more labile macromolecular organic matter. Marine influence declined after 4,300 cal yr BP, and although the abundance of short-chain-length n-alkanes suggests continued presence of wetland flora until 2,500 cal yr BP, organic matter preservation became poorer and a drying trend was inferred, most notably for the interval 2,500-900 cal BP. Increasing freshwater inundation is apparent during the last 700 cal yr, consistent with several records from this region. Leaf wax n-alkane distributions are largely uncorrelated with bulk organic matter variables, with the exception of the abundance of C and C n-alkanes, which are negatively correlated with δC. Furthermore, C-C n-alkane δC values are uncorrelated with C-C δC and δC. They are also higher than our newly measured terrestrial (C) vegetation C and C end-member values of −35 ± 2 and −34 ± 1 ‰, respectively. These patterns are best explained by a dominant contribution of local riparian vegetation to the C-C n-alkanes, but time-varying contributions of non-local leaf waxes to the C-C signals. This renders inferences concerning regional environmental change from long-chain leaf waxes potentially challenging in this setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of American Anthropologist 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 is considered to be a tourist resource, and it is widely acknowledged that the nature and distribution of tourist activities are affected by climatic elements. Changing world climatic regimes are therefore likely to have long term impacts on tourism activities, resources and distribution patterns. South African tourism will not escape the impacts of climate change. This is unfortunately also true of the Western Cape, South Africa's premier tourist destination. This article explores the impacts of climate change on tourism in this sub-region and investigates the actions that can be taken to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. A model for the development of adaptive strategies is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollen analysis of a core in Princess Vlei in the Fynbos Biome near Cape Town gives a 4150 year record of vegetation and climate changes followed by disturbance by colonial settlers since c. 300 years ago. Their impact replaced climate as a major factor in changing the vegetation. The chronology is based on eight radiocarbon dates. Pollen types such as Restionaceae, Ericaceae, and Proteaceae reflect changes in fynbos. Pollen indicators at the bottom of the core suggest drier conditions followed by an increase in Morella, Cyperaceae and Carpacoce pollen, which might indicate moist conditions c. 3400–2600 cal. yr BP. Drier conditions prevail c. 2600–1900 cal. yr BP. Apparent light disturbance after c. 2000 cal. yr BP might be attributed to Khoi herders. Deeper water and damp surroundings are indicated c. 1900–1000 cal. yr BP. The top of the core shows an increase of Poaceae while Restionaceae decrease with anthropogenic disturbance, including the introduction of neophytes such as Pinus (c. 300 years ago) and Zea mays. Charcoal percentages point to intense fires after the arrival of the Europeans. Water between 105 and 75 cm indicates the development of a floating mat resulting from changes in the hydrological system possibly connected to disturbances by settlers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses bridging the communication gap between climate science and water management in Western Cape, South Africa. The authors argue that the need for collaboration and information sharing between scientists, who are the producers of knowledge, and individuals who manage human and ecological systems, who are the end users of knowledge, is an urgent issue. They note that the global hydrological system is expected to experience some of the most considerable impacts of climate change that will produce future challenges in water resource management (WRM). Topics include the challenges to collaboration in developing countries, such as dealing with water supply issues, and methods to improve communication between scientists and water resource managers.

The history of South African estuarine ichthyology from 1910-2010 is reviewed. The first survey of fishes in a South African estuary was undertaken by Gilchrist in the early 1900s, followed by an extended period between the two world wars when little or no work was conducted in South African estuaries. In the 1940s and 1950s a series of surveys initiated by Day documented the fishes in a range of estuaries in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, but little detailed biological information was collected. The estuarine surveys of the 1950s and 1960s were superseded by autecological and synecological studies in the 1970s and 1980s which yielded descriptive and process-orientated information on a wide variety of fish species, including the larval stages of many taxa. This approach continued during the 1990s with publications dealing increasingly with the response of fish assemblages to declining freshwater inflows, the consequences of growing angling pressures on fish populations, and the increasing anthropogenic perturbations that necessitated the development of fish and estuarine health indices. In the late 1990s the impact of climate change on estuary-associated fishes became increasingly apparent and much research is currently focused around this topic. A number of projects have been activated at the subtropical/warm temperate and warm temperate/cool temperate transition zones in South Africa. However, baseline studies are urgently required to document changes in the tropical/subtropical transition zone in Mozambique and in the warm temperate/subtropical and subtropical/tropical zones in Angola so as to improve our understanding of the impact of climate change on estuary-associated fish species in Africa. Innovative methods, incorporating the use of biomarkers, otolith microchemistry, population genetics, acoustic telemetry, underwater videography and high-resolution sonic recordings, are opening up opportunities to test new hypotheses relating to estuarine fish ecology on the subcontinent. [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]

Occupational exposure to heat and solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) threatens the health and wellbeing of outdoor workers. These threats are likely to increase as a result of climate change. This study examined the perceptions of occupational heat and sun exposure and health risk prevention among forestry workers removing alien invasive vegetation in the Western Cape, South Africa. The linkages between workers' perceptions of heat, solar UVR, and herbicide exposure and impacts under the current climate were investigated to better understand potential adaptation needs under a changing climate. Using focus group discussions and participatory risk mapping, heat stresses identified by workers were either environmental (e.g., lack of shade) or work-related (e.g., wearing required personal protective equipment). Several heat and solar UVR health impacts were reportedly experienced by workers; local indigenous knowledge and coping mechanisms, such as wearing ochre for sun protection, were used to prevent these impacts. Despite workers' current efforts to protect their health, existing gaps and opportunities to improve working conditions were identified. Institutional structures for improved reporting of adverse events are imperative, together with awareness and education campaigns about the risks associated with working in hot and sunny environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]