South African paper on SRM and 'Day Zero' droughts in Cape Town

[Andy Parker]

The fourth research paper to come from SRMGI’s DECIMALS Fund was published in Environmental Research Letters today and its conclusions are striking. Odoulami et al explores how SRM might affect the chances of Day Zero droughts in Cape Town – the kind of drought that nearly caused the city to run out of water in 2018. It finds that, at least under the GLENS deployment scenario, SRM could reduce the likelihood of Day Zero droughts by up to 90% compared to a world of very high warming (RCP8.5). The authors are also clear that uncertainties are large at this early stage and different scenarios, models, or locations might return different results.

This is the second SRM research paper to come from the team based at the University of Cape Town, following Pinto et al in January.

For anyone not already familiar with it, the DECIMALS Fund is the world’s first SRM modelling fund aimed exclusively at developing countries. It supports teams in Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Indonesia, Iran, Ivory Coast, Jamaica and South Africa as they research how SRM could affect their regions. 

Andy