Water and Fire: Enhancing Capacity and Reducing Risk through ‘15 Best Bets’ for Transformative Adaptation with Vulnerable Residents on the Cape Flats
UKRI GCRF Water and Fire is a collaborative, interdisciplinary international project and partnership between residents of the Cape Flats of South Africa, and transdisciplinary researchers at the University of Stirling, the Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation, and the universities of Cape Town and Western Cape, in an effort to co-mobilise existing local knowledges and practices with disaster-affected residents, and co-produce new approaches to disaster management in the face of protracted, social, political and often climate change induced environmental crises. The project is led by Dalene Swanson, with contributions from other ‘Extremes’ members Niall Hamilton-Smith and Jen Dickie.
The research project aims to directly address the disaster risk challenges of 3 escalating environmental hazards: drought-related water shortages and poor water quality; frequent flooding; and large-scale recurrent outbreaks of fire. These disaster hazards disproportionately and differentially impact marginalised urban residents on the Cape Flats. The research aims to test new methods of complementary, democratic and creative public engagement to advocate community-driven solutions, policy and resilience actions to reduce the effects of disasters on vulnerable residents.
You can read more about the project here