GeoMIP-Africa: impact of SAI on temperature and precipitation extremes over West and Central Africa and implications for water resources
Project summary
Over the past few decades, Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced the adverse impacts of increasingly frequent climate extremes. The urgent need to limit the impacts of climate change have led to consideration of geoengineering schemes using SRM technologies, such as stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI). However, the potential impacts of SAI on a local and regional scale (e.g. agriculture, energy, health) in West and Central Africa have not been previously explored. Using GEOMIP models, Dr Vami Hermann N’Guessan Bi and his team investigated 1) The changes in temperature and precipitation extremes over West and Central Africa induced by SAI and using the WEAP model, and 2) The potential implications on water resources in the main basins of the region. The project was hosted by the University of Félix Houphouët-Boigny (CURAT).
The team
Dr Vami Hermann N'Guessan Bi (PI)
University of Felix Houphouët-Boigny
Dr Vami Hermann N’Guessan Bi is a Researcher at the University Center for Applied Research in Remote Sensing (CURAT) at Felix Houphouet-Boigny University in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. He has a PhD in Remote Sensing and GIS with a speciality in hydrogeology and climate. He is involved in several activities and projects in the region and in Africa, and contributed to the DFID/NERC AMMA-2050 project on climate change. From February to September 2016, he worked as an Environment Quality Expert for a national agricultural project (PSAC-2016) funded by the World Bank, which aimed to introduce rural populations to best environmental practices. Since March 2017, he is a member of the national Technical Modelling Team for climate studies (TMT) for the LEDS-Africa project (Low Emission Development Strategy-Africa), funded by the European Union. Since April 2018, he is a member of the modelling team for METCACAO, a meteorological service for cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast funded by the AFD (French Development Agency). Since December 2017, he is a member of the GMS-Africa (modelling of urban flooding hazard in a context of climate change) project’s modelling team. He currently has 21 publications and 20 communications at international conferences and symposia.
Dr Arona Diedhiou
University of Grenoble‐Alpes & University of Felix Houphouët-Boigny
Dr Arona Diedhiou is Research Director at the Institute of Research for Sustainable Development (IRD) based at the Institute of Geosciences for the Environment (IGE, hosted at the University of Grenoble-Alpes, France) and hosted as visiting scientist at the University Felix Houphouët Boigny (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire). From 2002 to 2007, Dr Diedhiou contributed to the implementation of the AMMA International Program on the West African Monsoon as a member of the International Executive Committee. From 2007 to 2012, he was the Head of the RIPIECSA program (funded with 3.5 million Euros from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development) to support initiatives on interdisciplinary research on climate-environment-society interactions in Africa. Between 2013 and 2016, he was the co-PI of the RHYVA project on hydro-meteorological risks in African cities, and since 2014, a member of the French ANR ACASIS project on Sahelian heat waves and their impacts. Since 2015, he is the co-PI of AMMA-2050, a UK/NERC-DFID joint initiative of “Future Climate for Africa”. Dr Diedhiou is a specialist of the African Climate System and Climate Changes in the tropics. He is currently working on the variability of high impact weather and climate events and atmospheric drivers over West Africa in in-situ observations and satellite data as well as in regional and global circulation models. He is also currently working – and supervising Master’s and PhD students as well as post-docs – on the climate–energy-agriculture nexus over West Africa in a climate change perspective. Dr Diedhiou was a Lead Author of the IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C global warming.
Madina Doumbia
University of Felix Houphouët-Boigny
Madina Doumbia has obtained her PhD on Climate and Interaction in February 2020 from the Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics and Fluid Mechanics of Université Félix-Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan. Her research focuses on the impacts of urban air pollution at local and regional scales, and her work has allowed the development of BC, OC, NOx, SO2, CO and NMVOC emissions inventories for traffic, domestic fires and commercial sources in the local area of Yopougon. She also uses the ADMS-Roads model to look at the dispersion of pollutants, and conducted studies which showed how the variability of climate conditions (rainfall and temperature) influences cocoa production in western central Côte d’Ivoire. Her research has been driven by the importance she attaches to the crucial questions that pollution and climate raise nowadays. She is a member of the African Group on Atmospheric Sciences (ANGA) and of other organizations such as Femme Leader d’Afrique (FLA) and Femmes Chercheurs de Côte d’Ivoire. She has participated in several national and international conferences.
Jose Ricardo Kouakou
University of Felix Houphouët-Boigny
Jose Ricardo Kouakou is studying climate, environment and sustainable development at the University Center of Applied Research in Remote Sensing (CURAT) at UFHB.
Jerôme André Loukou
University of Felix Houphouët-Boigny
Jerôme André Loukou is enrolled as a doctoral student at the University Center for Applied Research in Remote Sensing (CURAT) at the UFR STRM of the University Felix Houphouet Boigny in Cocody. He holds a Master’s degree in Remote Sensing and Geographical Systems with a specialty in climate, environment and sustainable development.
Alioune Badara Kone
University of Felix Houphouët-Boigny
Alioune Badara Kone is enrolled as a PhD student at the University Center of Applied Research in Remote Sensing (CURAT) of Université Félix Houphouet-Boigny, working on SRM impacts as part of the DECIMALS team of Côte d’Ivoire.
Salomon Obahoundje
University of Felix Houphouët-Boigny
Salomon Obahoundje is a PhD student on Climate and Interaction at the African Excellence Center on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture (WASCAL/CEA-CCBAD) at Felix Houphouet-Boigny University in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. He is working on the combined impacts of changes in climate and land use/cover on hydropower generation in West Africa. He holds a BSc and an MSc in Physical Sciences, and a Master of Research on Climate Change and Energy from the WASCAL (West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use) program. His expertise is related to geoinformatics (GIS), hydrology and remote sensing, watershed management, hydrologic and water resources modelling and simulation, as well as climate change and hydropower modelling. He is part of the WASCAL Alumna team involved in climate change and development at the local level. He has also contributed to the DFID/NERC “Future Climate for Africa” programme under AMMA-2050. He currently has 2 publications as well as 2 others under revision and 5 communications at international conferences and symposia.
Dr N’Datchoh Evelyne Toure
University of Felix Houphouët-Boigny
N’Datchoh Evelyne Toure is a researcher at the University Felix Houphouet Boigny in Côte d’Ivoire. She completed a PhD at the Federal University of Technology in Nigeria (2015) under the West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) framework. The associated research focused on the impact of aerosols from biomass burning and dust on the West African climate using RegCM. The results showed that aerosols do not only impact rainfall distribution but also greatly influence West African monsoon features. Furthermore, she investigated the sources of uncertainties in African biomass inventories and atmospheric pollution impact on health over West Africa within the framework of the Dynamics-Aerosol-Chemistry-Cloud Interactions in West Africa (DACCIWA) project as a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratoire d’Aérologie (LA) in Toulouse, France. She has co-authored various journal articles, conference proceedings, reports and book chapters. She is currently a research fellow with the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences – Next Einstein Initiative (AIMS-NEI) Fellowship Program for Women in Climate Change Science, where she is working on the assessment of the impact of climate change on extreme rainfall and temperature patterns over Cote d’Ivoire in the context of 1.5C global warming.