African Heritage Sites threatened by coastal flooding and erosion as
sea-level rise accelerates

Date:
February 10, 2022
Source:
University of Cape Town
Summary:
Climate risk and heritage experts have provided the first
comprehensive assessment of exposure of African cultural and natural
Heritage Sites to extreme sea levels and erosion associated with
accelerating sea level rise.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A global team of climate risk and heritage experts, where Dr Nicholas
Simpson from the University of Cape Town's (UCT) African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) was one of the leading contributors,
have provided the first comprehensive assessment of exposure of African cultural and natural Heritage Sites to extreme sea levels and erosion associated with accelerating Sea Level Rise.


==========================================================================
The team invested a year identifying and painstakingly mapping the
physical boundary of 284 African coastal heritage sites. They then
modelled the exposure of each site at future global warming scenarios.

They found 56 sites (20%) are at risk from a one-in-100-year extreme
sea-level event including the iconic ruins of Tipasa (Algeria) and the
North Sinai archaeological Sites Zone (Egypt). The paper's authors shared:
"By 2050, the number of exposed sites is projected to more than triple, reaching almost 200 for high emissions." At least 151 natural and 40
cultural sites will be exposed to the 100-year event from 2050 onwards, regardless of the warming scenario. The authors explained: "There are
several countries which are projected to have all their coastal heritage
sites exposed to the 100-year coastal extreme event by the end of the
century, regardless of the scenario: Cameroon, Republic of the Congo,
Djibouti, Western Sahara, Libya, Mozambique, Mauritania, and Namibia."
Under the worst-case scenario, this is also true for Co^te d'Ivoire,
Cabo Verde, Sudan and Tanzania. They added: "This is very concerning
because none of these countries currently demonstrate adequate management
or adaptive capacity to anticipate or establish heritage protections commensurate with the severity of these hazards." A co-author on the
paper shared: "Small island heritage sites are especially at risk. For
example, Aldabra Atoll, the world's second-largest coral atoll, and
Kunta Kinteh Island (The Gambia) could both see significant amounts of
their extent exposed by 2100 under high emissions raising questions
of their survivability under climate change." The results highlight
the importance of climate change adaptation and mitigation responses
to protect and reduce the exposure of these iconic heritage sites. The
authors explained: "If climate change mitigation successfully reduces greenhouse gas emissions from a high-emissions pathway to a moderate
emissions pathway, by 2050 the number of highly exposed sites can be
reduced by 25%. This would be a significant saving in terms of Loss
and Damage from climate change." The authors highlighted: "These
findings help with prioritising sites at risk and highlight the need
for immediate protective action for African Heritage Sites; the design
of which requires in-depth local-scale assessments of vulnerability and adaptation options. Urgent climate change adaptation for heritage sites
in Africa includes improving governance and management approaches; site-specific vulnerability assessments; exposure monitoring; and
protection strategies including ecosystem-based adaptation." .

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Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Michalis I. Vousdoukas, Joanne Clarke, Roshanka Ranasinghe,
Lena Reimann,
Nadia Khalaf, Trang Minh Duong, Birgitt Ouweneel, Salma Sabour,
Carley E.

Iles, Christopher H. Trisos, Luc Feyen, Lorenzo Mentaschi,
Nicholas P.

Simpson. African heritage sites threatened as sea-level rise
accelerates.

Nature Climate Change, 2022; DOI: 10.1038/s41558-022-01280-1 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220210114021.htm

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