How much is the climatic crisis impact on the main cities of the world? A lot, and with extreme oscillations between Wet and dry weather conditions. A new report tells it, which has analyzed 112 citieshighlighting how 95% of them show a clear tendency towards a more humid or more dry climate.
The report, conducted by the ONG Waterid in collaboration with researchers of theBristol University and of theUniversity of Cardiffanalyzed the 100 most populous cities, plus 12 selected, revealing that dozens of cities, including Lucknow, Madrid and Riyadhhave undergone a climatic “reversal” in the last 20 years, going from dry extremes to humid extremes, or vice versa.
Global oddities
The professor Michael Singer of the University of Cardiff described the model as “global strangeness“. “Most of the places we have examined are changing in some way, but in ways that are not always predictable,” Singer said.
The study found that 17 cities around the world were affected by “Clean shots ”climaticsuffering more frequent extremes of both humid and dry conditions. The larger “whips” were observed at Hangzhou in China, in the Indonesian megalopolis of Jerk and Dallas In Texas. Other cities affected by “whips” include Baghdad, Bangkok, Melbourne And Nairobi.
Climate and regional trend inversions
The analysis also discovered that 24 cities witnessed dramatic climate changes in this century. The most abrupt changes from dry conditions to dry have occurred at Cairo, Madrid and Riyadhwith Hong Kong and San Jose in California also in the top 10.
The most abrupt changes from dry conditions to wet have occurred to Lucknow and Surat In India and in the second city of Nigeria, Kano. Other cities with humid changes have been Bogota, Hong Kong and Tehran.
The report highlights how The cities of southern Asia are increasingly subject to floodsWhile European cities have significant drought trends. All European cities analyzed show a drought trend in the last 42 years, including Madrid, Paris and London. Both Madrid and Barcelona present “climate risk inversions”, with Madrid in second place on the list of cities that are undergoing a reversal towards extreme drought conditions.
Vulnerability and combined risks in Africa and Asia
The cities in Africa and Asia are emerging as the most at risk of extreme climate change all over the world. The research highlights how cities with the greatest increase in climatic risks combined with the highest social and infrastructure vulnerability they are Khartoum In Sudan, Faisalabad in Pakistan e Amman In Jordan. Karachialways in Pakistan, has also ranked up for vulnerability and is experiencing more humid extremes.
The vulnerability examined by the relationship range from poverty to the poor quality of water systems and waste disposal, exposing urban populations in continuous expansion to the risk of increasingly intense floods or droughts, with consequent movements, instability and loss of human lives.
The impact on the populations and the proposed solutions
The climate change of cities can affect citizens with aggravated floods and droughts, destroy access to clean water, toilets and food, dispare for communities and spread diseases. The cities where the water infrastructure is already scarce, such as Karachi and Khartoum, are the ones that suffer most.
Currently, 90% of climatic disasters are linked to water and the 4.4 billion people who live in the city, especially in low -income countries, are at the forefront.
Waterid’s report underlines the urgency of:
