- Climate change is increasing the duration, intensity, and frequency of extreme heat events in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Human activity is driving rapid LCLUC, putting pressure on agricultural production, threatening food security, and challenging livelihood strategies.
- Extreme heat and LCLUC disproportionately impact women, yet less attention is given to these effects.
- NASA remote sensing tools can be used to study extreme heat exposure and LCLUC processes to better understand risks and develop successful adaptation strategies.
How is land cover/use changed?
Agricultural expansion is a primary driver of LCLUC, including deforestation, which itself may impact extreme heat. For example, changes in irrigation may increase relative humidity in agricultural regions, compounding the impacts of hot-humid heat among people, including women, who work in agriculture [1]. Interactions between changing heat and LCLUC will likely vary. For example, projections of climate change and forestation in West Africa may lead to increased extreme heat events in savanna regions but decreases in heat waves in the Sahel and the Guinea coast [2].
Figure 1: Extreme humid-heat is increasing fastest is areas that are greening in the Sahel.
Why is this Important?
Interactions between heat and LCLUC may further increase vulnerability to extreme heat and weaken adaptation strategies. This may specifically burden women, as they play critical roles in natural resource collection and management [3]. Impacts on food security and nutrition affect women due to gender norms that result in women reducing their own food consumption, further increasing vulnerability during pregnancy [4].
How satellite data are being used to inform decision making and Earth Action?
Remote sensing data are being used to produce a region-wide, fine-grained, thirty- year analysis of the changing characteristics of extreme heat events across SSA. These data are being integrated with RS-derived datasets that address different components of LCLUC to identify interactions and hotspots. Econometric analyses are being used to quantify impacts on women’s health.
[1] Mishra et al. (2020). Nat. Geosci., 13. [2] Odoulami el at. (2017). Ecol. Eng., 102. [3] Nellemann et al. (2011) UNEP. [4] Hill et al. (2019). World Bank.
Project Investigator: Nina Brooks, Boston University,
MA, USA; Email: nrbrooks@bu.edu
The opinions expressed are solely the PI's and do not reflect NASA's or the US Government's views.