Precipitation Variability in West Africa in the Context of Global Warming and Adaptation Recommendations

Gandome Mayeul L.D. Quenum, Nana A.B. Klutse, Eric A. Alamou, Emmanuel A. Lawin, Philip G. Oguntunde

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

It is commonly accepted that the Earth’s climate is changing and will continue to change in the future. Rising temperatures are one of the direct indicators of global climate change. To investigate how the rising global temperature will affect the spatial pattern of rainfall in West Africa, the precipitation and potential evapotranspiration variables from ten Global Climate Models (GCMs) under the RCP8.5 scenario were driven by the Rossby Centre regional atmospheric model (RCA4) from the COordinated Regional Climate Downscaling EXperiment (CORDEX) and analyzed at four specific global warming levels (GWLs) (i.e., 1.5 °C, 2.0 °C, 2.5 °C, and 3.0 °C) above the preindustrial level. This study utilized three indices, the precipitation concentration index (PCI), the precipitation concentration degree (PCD), and the precipitation concentration period (PCP) over West Africa to explore the spatiotemporal variations in the characteristics of precipitation concentrations. Besides, the analysis of the effect of the specified GWLs on the Consecutive Dry Days (CDD), Consecutive Wet Days (CWD), and frequency of the intense rainfall events allowed to a better understanding of the spatial and temporal patterns of extreme precipitation in West Africa. Results reveal that, for the projections simulations and at each GWL, the rainfall onset starts one month earlier in the Gulf of Guinea in response to the control period. To encourage adaptation to the various changes in climate in general, and particularly in respect of rainfall, this study proposes several adaptation methods that can be implemented at the local (country) level, as well as some mitigation and adaptation strategies at the regional (West African) level.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAfrican Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation
Subtitle of host publicationWith 610 Figures and 361 Tables
PublisherSpringer International Publishing
Pages1533-1554
Number of pages22
ISBN (Electronic)9783030451066
ISBN (Print)9783030451059
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Adaptation strategy
  • Global warming
  • Precipitation concentration degree (PCD)
  • Precipitation concentration index (PCI)
  • Precipitation concentration period (PCP)

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