Planning for a scorcher or stormy day
Prof Coleen Vogel recently returned from attending her first meeting as a scientific committee member of the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) held in Geneva.
Earlier this year Prof Coleen Vogel was invited to become a member of the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) scientific committee. As a scientific member of the WWRP committee, Prof Coleen Vogel is tasked with investigating and providing guidance pertaining to building links with those engaged in social and economic research issues that have relevance in relation to climate operations at a variety of scales (global to local).
The WWRP focuses on “promoting international and interdisciplinary research for more accurate and reliable forecasts from minutes to seasons, expanding the frontiers of weather science to enhance society’s resilience to high-impact weather and the value of weather information to users.” (WWRP Implementation Plan 2016-2023)
“The WWRP research strategy was developed to tackle four scientific and societal challenges (identified by the Commission of Atmospheric Sciences), namely, Urbanisation, High-impact weather, Water, and Evolving Technologies. With ever-increasing urbanisation and changes in land usage, predicting and communicating weather information has become critical to best prepare various sectors i.e. society, business etc. to respond in the short term and become more ‘resilient’ in the longer term. WWRP brings together specialists from all around the globe to share knowledge and enhance collaborative opportunities to better inform plans going forward in relation to weather prediction capabilities. I have the opportunity to highlight Africa’s weather challenges and scientific expertise and input these, where appropriate and applicable, into a number of forums and in turn help to further build African capacity via international best practice,” says Vogel.
According to Vogel, improved weather predictive capabilities in addition to improving and developing communication efficiency between and with stakeholders (action research and transdisciplinary practices) is critical to managing and responding to weather risks. “Often, weather is seen as a scientific discipline where communication and engagement is limited to the scientific community. Weather and climate, as we are reminded of regularly (e.g. flooding and droughts in South Africa) affects all of society. We need to promote intensive engagement between actors from different disciplines, industries, members of public etc. WWRP is looking at how best we can address diverse stakeholder requirements – provide actionable information – to better inform decision-making amongst society members. An example would be weather warnings for particular areas – such as certain informal settlements – prone to flooding. How can we better engage, produce relevant information and disseminate information to people in these areas to better respond? Understanding the complex contexts in which various ‘users’ of information reside and the complex socio-economic and historical situations that underpin various risk contexts, is as important to understand, as is understanding the climate system and distributing climate information to users,” adds Vogel.
Prof Coleen Vogel says that her experience in developing an Adaptation Framework for the City of Johannesburg, from a transdisciplinary approach, assists with her advisory position on the WWRP committee. “Scientific research is a solid foundation to plan ahead and respond to challenges. However, research alone is not necessarily impactful. Business, industry, policy, members of public etc. all need to be engaged. Matters of concern, that can often be conflictual, from all sectors of society need to be taken into account to ensure responses to weather climate challenges,” says Vogel. She adds, “Here we need the humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, engineering to engage better in universities and then with the city and civic society needs.”
Prof Vogel’s work on Future Resilience for African Cities and Lands (FRACTAL) also assists in such research. FRACTAL is a University of Cape Town led collaborative research effort that brings together a number of universities and related partners to work in various cities in Africa on research to enhance resilience to changing climates by enhancing decision making at a number of scales and levels.