Scientists Discover Climate Change 'Hotspots' in sub-Saharan Africa

Climate change is impacting areas across the globe. Yet there are "hotspots" of climate change that are being impacted more drastically than others. More specifically, there are places in Africa where risks overlap, creating severe situations.

In order to find out a bit more about what areas could be hotspots for climate change, the researchers looked at risks such as drought or flooding, declining crop yields, and ecosystem damages.

"We found three regions to be amongst the most at risk in a couple of decades: parts of Sudan and Ethiopia, the countries surrounding lake Victoria in central Africa, and the very southeast of the continent, including most notably parts of South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe," said Christoph Muller, one of the researchers, in a news release.

These areas are expected to see more severe dry seasons with reduced growth of plants in addition to near Lake Victoria floodings. In addition, these regions will possibly suffer more due to high population and high poverty rates. Yet not all regions in Africa will suffer, revealing that climate change, while global, will impact regions differently.

"The good news is that large countries such as Nigeria and the tropical forests of the Congo region are likely to be much less affected," said Muller in a news release.

This latest study highlights the importance of creating management strategies in order to combat potential detrimental effects. These adaptation measures could include improved access to international agricultural markets to possibly sell cattle before droughts. They could also include water underground storage systems, such as underground cisterns.

"It's all about risks," said Hermann Lotze-Campen, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We have to live with uncertainties: we don't have perfect data about future impacts of climate change, but computer simulations can help to understand likelihoods and possible impacts. Climate change clearly threatens people's livelihoods and thus cannot be ignored. Based on likelihoods and values at stake, we have to make decisions now-as we always do when we're building a dike or for instance pass regulations on flight safety."

The findings are published in the journal Global Current Biology.