Boosting African cities' resilience to climate change
The role of green spaces
The next few decades will bring an era of rapid urbanisation and unprecedented climate
stress in African cities. Green spaces can boost the resilience of cities to heat
waves, floods, landslides, and even coastal erosion, in addition, to enhancing sustainability
by improving air quality, protecting biodiversity, and absorbing carbon. All of which
can enhance well-being. Yet, data on the availability of green spaces in African urban
agglomerations is scarce. This analysis fills the gap by combining new and novel data
sources to estimate the availability of green spaces in 5 625 urban agglomerations
with 10 000 inhabitants and above. The rest of the report then uses this novel dataset
to first evaluate the dynamics between urbanisation and green spaces, and second,
explore the potential of green spaces to boost the resilience and sustainability of
cities in the future. The results show that as urban agglomerations become larger
and more compact, green spaces disappear, exacerbating their vulnerability to climate
change and deteriorating liveability. However, building taller buildings (i.e., growing
vertically), offers a way for cities to grow whilst minimising loss of green space.
Results show that more green space can boost sustainability by significantly lowering
air pollution in African cities, which could be vital for public health in the future
since outdoor air pollution is rising. The potential for green spaces to enhance resilience
to climate events, like heat waves, depends on the location of green spaces throughout
the city and the percentage of the population that lives close to a green space (i.e.,
within 300 metres). Green spaces may play a limited role in coping with heat waves
in a city like Khartoum where only 3% of the population lives close to a green space,
but could be a nature-based solution to heat waves in a city like Abuja, where 55%
of the population can benefit from its cooling effects. Moving forward, local actors
have clear evidence of the power of green spaces to build a sustainable and resilient
future. Still, the report reveals that local actors need support from regional and
national actors to realise the potential of green spaces.
Published on July 31, 2022
In series:West African Papersview more titles