Futurecasting Cape Town: Cape Town’s preparedness for floods 

Conversations to visualise the future
Thursday, 23 June 2022
10:00 – 11:30am

Register here
Flooding after heavy rain at the Waterfront informal settlement in Philippi, Cape Town. Credit: Ashraf Hendricks

In the wake of the recent floods in KwaZulu Natal, how is Cape Town preparing for similar climate-crisis related events?

Flooding has long been a challenge for Cape Town with projections showing that Cape Town will continue to experience several high-rainfall storm events annually. The biggest impacts are expected in highly vulnerable areas.

The City’s Climate Change Action Plan includes flooding as a Strategic Focus Area, with a focus on flood readiness, storm management and water sensitivity.

This Futurecasting Cape Town webinar will bring together City officials, climate scientists, adaptation specialists and others with direct experience of managing disaster responses for flooding to look at Cape Town’s projections for high rainfall, the expected impacts on residents, infrastructure and service delivery, among others, and the City’s preparedness plans and current projects for flooding.

Facilitator:
Gina Ziervogel, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, UCT 

Panelists:

  • Dr Christopher Jack, Climate System Analysis Group (CSAG), UCT
  • David Dare Ali,  Chief Town & Regional Planner, Informal Settlement Support,  Department of Human Settlements, Western Cape Government
  • Lebogang Makgati, Regional Manager for Western & Northern Cape, South African Weather Service (SAWS)
  • City of Cape Town – speaker to be confirmed

 

About the Futurecasting Cape Town series

Futurecasting is a well-established approach to model the future and anticipate changes in a sector or society in the coming 10 to 15 years. It combines past patterns and trends with current insights and includes futures thinking to help shape the future and mitigate any possible risks.

The Futurecasting Cape Town series, convened by the City of Cape Town’s Resilience Department with support from the Western Cape Economic Development Partnership (EDP) provides an opportunity to model the future around critical issues facing Cape Town and influence decisions that will reflect shared values and drive innovation. The series underscores a key element of the City of Cape Town’s Resilience Strategy towards collaborative partnering with business to support resilience. Speakers from across sectors are invited to share insights and ideas for a common inclusive and resilient future.