Introducing REPRESA

Carlos Ayala

March 18, 2024

Resilience and Preparedness to tropical cyclones across Southern Africa (REPRESA) is an international collaborative effort involving partners across southern Africa, the UK and other European countries. It is co-led by the Global Change Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) in South Africa, Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Mozambique, and the University of Bristol (UoB) in the UK.

This project brings together an interdisciplinary team of leading social and physical scientists, national and international hydro met services and practitioners to tackle the pressing challenges posed by tropical cyclones in the region. The team recognise the importance of substantially improving the adoption of forecast products in vulnerable communities. The research process will co-develop and enhance anticipatory governance structures for flood and tropical cyclone risk management in local communities in Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique. This includes early warning dissemination and scenario-based community-specific action plans.

*The devastating aftermath of Cyclone Freddy, which hit the region Feb-Mar 2023. It was unprecedented in terms of its persistence and led to hundreds of deaths.*

Southern Africa is highly vulnerable to the destructive forces of tropical cyclones, as evidenced by the catastrophic Tropical Cyclones Idai in 2019 and Freddy in 2023 and, the existing early warning systems in the region, and/or the uptake of the warnings issued, are inadequate to prevent loss of life and economic hardship.

REPRESA aims to fill this gap by improving early warning systems as well as conducting comprehensive research on how cyclone risks will evolve in a changing climate, and formulating adaptation options that enhance resilience in the face of these risks.

The REPRESA project will run from June 2023 until the end of November 2026.

Objectives

The specific objectives of the REPRESA project include:

Quantify the changing attributes of landfalling tropical cyclones resulting from current and future global warming.
Assess tropical cyclone flood hazards now and into the future, including effects from surface water, river and coastal flooding combined.
Strengthen multi-hazard impact-based early warning systems and their uptake in vulnerable communities.
Formulate adaptation options that enhance resilience to the evolving risks from tropical cyclones and intersecting vulnerabilities.