Study Aids Climate Forests of Two African Regions
Researchers have used simulations — a step-by-step method on a computer to explore approximate behaviour — to predict different outcomes of changes in seasonal rainfall and temperature for west and southern Africa. According to researchers from South Africa-based University of Cape Town (UCT), forecasts of seasonal climate could help reduce disasters, and thus they were motivated to use simulations to predict changes in rainfall and temperature over time in Africa.
In the study conducted by researchers at the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences at the UCT, they used a group of climate models called general circulation model (GCM) to estimate rainfall and temperature figures from 1961 to 2005, focusing on all the countries in the two sub-regions.
The study’s findings were released in a statement by UCT last month (7 March). According to the statement, the study formed part of the doctoral thesis of Kamoru Lawal.
Lawal, who is the deputy general manager of research and training at the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, tells SciDev.Net that the study can help reduce the impacts of extreme rainfall and temperature such as disasters on socioeconomic activities in the regions.
Ian Barbour