Adaptation Metrics and Techniques Cluster (AMT)

The importance of water resource management and agriculture development in alleviating the challenges of food security in Africa and the world, do not need to be demonstrated especially when considering the impacts of climate change. Addressing agriculture and water climate related issues cannot be done without adaptation and monitoring and evaluating tools for their accuracy and effectiveness.

Based on this framework, the University Mohammed VI Polytechnic hosted, on October 6-7, 2017, a conference on “Adaptation Metrics for Agriculture and Water” as a first one in the series1. This conference was organized as the last conference of the presidency of Morocco, related to COP22, with the Moroccan COP22 scientific committee headed by the President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council of Morocco.

The main objective of this conference was to bring together researchers and experts in the field of Climate Change, Water and Agriculture representing from different countries, international organizations such as the African Development Bank and governmental institutions such as the State Secretary for Sustainable Development and international foundations such as GIZ (The German foundation for international cooperation).

The main topics highlighted in this conference were namely; Water Mobilization and Efficiency, Protection against Water Hazard, Agricultural Water and Agroecology, Climate Risks and Hazards for Agriculture. Methodologies to quantify risks and metrics to mitigate the Global Climate Change were also presented during this conference.

Different experts presented several methodologies in order to quantify risks and the metrics to be adopted in order to mitigate the ubiquitous Global Change. As a matter of fact, IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) representative showed the different paths that climate change is very likely to follow for the upcoming years. It is clear that precipitation will change in quantity, frequency and space distribution all over the world. Moreover, an increase in extreme climatic events (storm, flood, drought, high temperature extremes, etc) is more likely to happen. All these changes will affect considerably agriculture practice. Therefore, adaptation should be defined, examined and judged by the power of its action (inaction, bad action and thoughtful action). As a result, it is necessary to set up metrics for better use and management of water, and ensure food security in the context of global change.

Different experts presented several methodologies in order to quantify risks and the metrics to be adopted in order to mitigate the ubiquitous Global Change. As a matter of fact, IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) representative showed the different paths that climate change is very likely to follow for the upcoming years. It is clear that precipitation will change in quantity, frequency and space distribution all over the world. Moreover, an increase in extreme climatic events (storm, flood, drought, high temperature extremes, etc) is more likely to happen. All these changes will affect considerably agriculture practice. Therefore, adaptation should be defined, examined and judged by the power of its action (inaction, bad action and thoughtful action). As a result, it is necessary to set up metrics for better use and management of water, and ensure food security in the context of global change.

Several issues that struggle adaptation metrics work, and that ought to be addressed by the international community, were raised during the conference. First, rarity of data and lack in information sharing process and platforms is an urgent problem to solve. In fact, Africa is not very well instrumented and the few available data and information are not always accessible. As a matter of fact, it is very hard to assess the impact of climate change on agriculture and on hazards occurrence to implement appropriate adaptation actions. In addition, scientific works related to adaptation metrics are under-estimated during the subventions process. For all these reasons among others, only few research related works are devoted to the thematic of adaptation metrics.

The conference was also a good opportunity to address different recommendations and challenges that should be taken into consideration to highlight adaptation metrics. The community needs a reliable tool for saving and assessing data and information, and specific metrics should be adopted. A sectoral approach have been highly recommended paying attention to the overlap of results. The importance of global metrics or indicators was not neglected. Adaptation metrics should be incorporated into decision tools. Moreover, there is an urgent need of scientific vulgarization, to aware stakeholders (decisions makers, practitioners, populations…) about climate change risks and spread knowledge about adaptation metrics.

As a continuity of the Adaptation Metrics for Agriculture and Water conference and due to the importance of the topic of adaptation metrics as a key driver for informed and impactful decision making, it was decided to sustain it within the UM6P. Thus, an Adaptation Metrics Cluster is created and hosted at the University UM6P. An Advisory Board is set up and members are being assigned progressively. The title of the Cluster/Conference was extended to “Adaptation Metrics and Techniques for Agriculture, Water and Resilient Cities”.

Techniques of adaptation are also included as they are linked to specific metrics and in order to enhance information sharing about new findings and practices.

Resilient Cities are added intentionally to create/enhance/bring other dimensions to communities cultivating robustness, thriving/wealth, health, justice, viable economy and sound environment (clean air, clean water, green landscapes, and sustainable and just food systems). Cities and their citizens have already begun experiencing the effects of climate change and making them more resilient to climate related disasters is becoming more and more imperative.

The topics covered by the cluster are targeted within the context of sustainable development goals. Their adaptation using appropriate metrics and monitoring tools will help meeting and supporting the achievement of these goals at different levels. Within the framework of Paris agreement, the cluster ultimate objective is to help enhancing adaptive capacities, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerabilities through the availability of scientific and technical information for monitoring, evaluating and then selecting reliable and appropriate adaptation techniques.

This cluster aims to be a tool for helping the scientific community, especially in Africa to follow up the work and to develop efficient methodologies in the framework of adaptation metrics. This tool will help the community to develop, discuss and assess scientific works related to this thematic. The university envisions to be a leader in Africa to address the issue of adaptation metrics and monitoring and to enhance international collaboration around this topic. Moreover, through the creation of a cluster, UM6P will allow African universities, research institutions and different stakeholders to be constantly aware of the last scientific works related to global and regional change hazards, and different methodologies available to adapt and to quantify the quality of the adaptation techniques.