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"The South African Risk and Vulnerability Atlas focuses on supporting decisions that increase a local community's resilience to global change impacts by encouraging the integration of information from different sectors." - Dr Rebecca Maserumule, Project Manager
South Africa's Risk and Vulnerability Atlas, a project initiated and funded by South Africa's Department of Science and Technology, will be launched in the first three months of 2010, in electronic as well as hardcopy format.
The South African Risk and Vulnerability Atlas will be an easy-to-navigate, interactive spatial product at many scales. It will include vector maps, images, narratives such as case studies, a glossary of terms and a document library. |
"The Atlas will be a continuously updated electronic data repository on global change in South Africa." - Dr Rebecca Maserumule, SARVA project manager |
"The Atlas will provide a data platform from where South Africa's world-class research can be freely accessed and used to inform world-class policy and adaptation measures." - Dr Emma Archer, CSIR Principal Global Change Scientist |
The project is managed by the CSIR, with key content, intellectual and technological inputs from South African institutions and research groups. The Atlas will capture and link to data related to key aspects such as groundwater, surface water, forests, biodiversity, human health, crops, demographics, economics and social dimensions.
As such, the Atlas will provide a vivid visual portrayal of South Africa and its changing environment. Images, photographs as well as case studies and other narratives will be included to inform global change adaptation responses and planning. More importantly, the end product will be a widely encompassing storehouse of information about global change that will contribute to the knowledge and understanding essential for adaptation and mitigation.
The Atlas is expected to be of immense value to policy-makers and decision-makers at all levels of government, as well as consultants, researchers, students, and everyone else who would like to know more about global change and its impacts on South Africa. It will also help support national initiatives such as the National Disaster Management Framework.
The project will have a human capital development component by training current and potential users in the supporting technology and application of this technology.
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