Climate Resilience Solutions in the West Nile Region of Uganda (CARIS)

project summary

The key research goal of the proposed project is to analyze and develop gender responsive climate change resilience solutions to the hydrological, agricultural and environmental conditions in the West Nile region of Uganda. The region is subject to several environmental and socio-economic hazards including water scarcity, water and land degradation, high poverty of the population, uncertain agricultural production and gender inequity. These problems are severely exacerbated by the high influx of refugees and climate change. The array of problems is highly interconnected and solutions thus require a truly interdisciplinary approach. Our proposed research will analyze these challenges and aim at closing critical knowledge gaps by establishing an interdisciplinary collaborative research consortium comprising scientific, technical and socio-economic expertise from Denmark and Uganda. The project consortium will integrate state-of-the-art modelling supported by field and laboratory investigations in combination with advanced socio-economic methods. The research will be supported by local knowledge to develop nature-based solutions for mitigating vulnerability to climate impacts, improving food and livelihood security, and reducing inequity for women.

The project will include the following components:
1. Analysis of water, land, soil and sediment conditions based on historical data and data collected from field surveys in combination with laboratory investigations of water and sediment quality.
2. Development of an integrated and distributed hydrological model based based on the open-source modelling platform SWAT. Application of the hydrological model for temporal and spatial assessments of water resources, agriculture and ecosystems.
3. Projection and analysis of climate change impact, land use change and sand mining on water and soil conditions.
4. Development of nature-based climate change adaptation strategies engaging local communities and explore the potential of promoting improved cooking options with tree-growing initiatives and innovative financing mechanisms to increase adoption of the interventions.
5. Socioeconomic analysis of gender dynamics concerning climate adaptation and ecosystem protection utilizing gender focused surveys, interviews, and other participatory approaches.