Climate change handbook for North-Eastern South Africa

Abstract

In many countries, decision-makers are seeking information from a wide range of disciplines on the potential impacts of climate change on environmental and socio-economic systems. This handbook is designed to present future climate change scenarios and possible impacts of these changes in an understandable and accessible manner. The handbook is designed to provide a background on the processes of global change and climate change. The handbook will also serve as a basic reference guide to those currently engaged in impacts and adaptation research. The future climate change projections (estimates of future climate possibilities) presented in this handbook are for the north-eastern region of South Africa only; namely the Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng provinces. These projections are based on newest information obtained from the latest regionally downscaled climate change models; provided by the Climate System Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town. It is hoped that readers of this handbook will gain a better understanding of climate change processes, impacts and the possible measures that could be taken to reduce these impacts