The South African Risk and Vulnerability Atlas (SARVA) is one of the flagship projects under the Department of Science and Technology’s 10 year Global Change Grand Challenge and is meant to bridge the gap between science and policy, by providing information on risk, vulnerability and impacts of global change from a municipal to a national scale. This tool is intended to be used by decision makers, municipalities, researchers, consultants and national departments as they plan around risk and vulnerability.

SARVA, through online, web-based services and applications directly supports the access to and visualization of different data sets dealing with or highlighting drivers, pressures, risk, vulnerability, resilience, and mitigation or adaptation within various themes on global change; and with the impacts of global change on human and natural environments. SARVA, through a series of case studies uploaded on the portal, showcases how global change plays out in selected key sectors, assisting not only in the understanding of global change vulnerability but in the likely responses to these changes as well.

The BioEnergy Atlas incorporates information on the basic factors involved in the production of biomass, potentials and yields for a variety of biomass resources, and assesses the techno-economic feasibility of energy products from these resources. The Atlas indicates potential bio-energy resources, their geographic spread, proximity to infrastructure, socio-economic impact, relevant conversion technologies and feasible end use applications. It also gives a scientific understanding of their potential to be converted into transport fuels in support of the bio-fuel industries. It looks at different categories of resources, including lignocellulose, organic waste, and purposefully cultivated biomass, among others.

The web-based Bioenergy Atlas will assist government by making available information on potential energy resources, their geographic spread, their proximity to infrastructure, and potential end users.