PROJECT TEAM

Petra is an inter- and transdisciplinary conservation scientist at the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI), University of Cape Town. Her current research focuses on exploring equitable and sustainable approaches to nature-based solutions (e.g., sustainable management, restoration or protection approaches) to address societal challenges with a focus on climate change adaptation in high-lying regions important for water supply in Southern Africa. Petra has theoretical and practical expertise in remote sensing, hydrological modelling, restoration ecology, and conservation science especially in the context of South African landscapes and ecosystems.

Email: petra.holden@uct.ac.za

Assumpta is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI), University of Cape Town, working in the TES NbS project. Her current research is based on processed-based biogeochemical, land surface and/or hydrological modelling. Specifically modelling nature-based solutions for trade-offs and long-term persistence under climate change, using the Hydro-JULES model. She has a background in Mathematics and the mathematical modelling of ecological systems.

Glynis is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI), University of Cape Town, working in the TES NbS project. Glynis has experience in using spatial and temporal data to understand people, climate, and fire dynamics. Her core interests are in understanding social-ecological interactions between climate, land use, and people under the threat of global change. Glynis’s current research project is centered on understanding the socio-economic benefits and constraints of nature-based solutions in achieving social equity in Southern Africa.

Sheona Shackleton works as the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) Deputy Director at the University of Cape Town and holds an Honorary Professorship with the Department of Environmental Science at Rhodes University. Sheona has worked at the interface between rural development, livelihoods and natural resource use and management for the past 35 years. Her research and postgraduate supervision has covered a diversity of areas within this broad theme such as community conservation, rural livelihoods and vulnerability, ecosystem services and human well-being, forest product use and commercialisation, natural resource governance and climate change adaptation. Her current research focusses on livelihood and landscape (social-ecological) change, with a particular interest in climate change as a driver and how it interacts with other shocks and stressors to influence adaptation, transformation and future livelihood trajectories.

Kwesi is a climate scientist and his interest broadly involves understanding interactions among large-scale climate processes (co-behavior) and its influence on the regional climate. He’s been focusing on developing methodologies that accommodate possible non-linear interactions of these large-scale processes, while evaluating global climate model response to these interactions. His current research is an intersection between climate data analytics and machine learning approaches to understanding regional climate variability and extremes. Kwesi is a DAAD Postdoctoral Researchers Climate Change Fellow and has consulted on the development of the National Adaptation Plan for Ghana spearheaded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Vernon is a research fellow in the Centre for Statistics in Ecology, Environment and Conservation (SEEC), University of Cape Town. Broadly speaking, he is interested in understanding why species occur where they do, and being able to predict and monitor their past, present and future distributions. This research is important for advancing our understanding of the natural world, but also for very practical purposes in that global climate change, land-use change, and human-assisted dispersal of species are causing unprecedented changes in the extents and distributions of species.

Christopher's research focus is on the intersection of climate change, biodiversity and human well-being. He directs the Climate Risk Lab and is a senior researcher at the African Climate and Development Initiative. The lab builds tools to predict when and where climate change risks appear, and how society can respond to climate risks in a way that is rapid, just and equitable. He is a Co-ordinating Lead Author for climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability for the Africa region of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 6th Assessment Report and a member of the Core Writing Team of the IPCC Synthesis Report. He has also consulted on climate change risk and adaptation for the World Bank. Christopher spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center at University of Maryland, where his research focused on biodiversity, climate change and geoengineering. He completed his doctorate at Oxford. He teaches a graduate course on interdisciplinary and actionable science.

Dr. Piotr Wolski is a hydro-climatologist with 25 years of work experience spanning climatological and hydro-climatological analyses, climate modelling, hydrological modelling and climate services. His primary interests are in hydro-climatological analytics and modelling and sharing of hydro-climate information. Since 2009, he has been pursuing his interest in climate variability and change, working at Climate System Analysis Group (CSAG), University of Cape Town. Earlier, he worked at the Okavango Research Institute, Maun, Botswana, focusing his research of various aspects of hydrology of the Okavango Delta and regional hydro-climate, working mostly as a member of multi-disciplinary, predominantly international teams.

Piotr has led a broad range of multi-disciplinary research studies and consulting projects focusing on generation of decision-relevant climate information at climate change and seasonal time scales. His research is supported by his hands-on experience with the use and development of statistical downscaling methods, generation of seasonal forecast information and climate change attribution analyses. He has also developed new methods of analysing and visualizing climate data, and has an extensive hands-on experience with development, maintenance and management of data/information sharing websites.

He is an accomplished academic and has published over 100 papers in scientific peer-reviewed journals, presented over 40 papers at international conferences, and is a contributing author on the IPCC sixth assessment report.

Toby Marthews is an Environmental Scientist at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UK CEH) with a particular interest in the effects of Climate Change on ecosystems. He has two special focuses: 1 - Global inundation and wetland environments (these areas currently account for 1/3rd of global emissions of the greenhouse gas methane and this may rise to >50% under climate change). 2 - Impacts of extreme climatic events (particularly large-scale droughts and floods, which account for the greatest loss of life and property in the contemporary world).

Dr Marthews is involved with the theory and development of land surface models (LSMs), working collaboratively with groups in the UK, India, Southern Africa, Norway, US, Panama and elsewhere. Mostly, he uses the UK model JULES, for which he is a code developer.

Mark New is Director of the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) at the University of Cape Town (UCT).  From 2017 to 2021 he also held the AXA Research Chair in Climate Risk at UCT.  His current research focuses on climate change impacts and adaptation, with a Southern African and African focus.  His research has encompassed detection and attribution of climate change and its impacts, climate modelling and scenarios, climate impacts assessment, uncertainty in climate projections and impacts, and climate change adaptation.  He has also contributed to scholarship and teaching on engaged research and transdisciplinary leadership.

Gina Ziervogel is Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science (EGS) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her research focuses on climate change adaptation and development across scales from the household to municipal level with a focus on urban water and resilience issues.  She is particularly interested in transdisciplinary approaches to address the governance of urban adaptation and social justice. She is an IPCC 6th Assessment report author on the Cities chapter and has published widely.

Simon Dadson is Professor in Physical Geography at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Christ Church. Simon holds an MA from the University of Oxford, an MSc from the University of British Columbia, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He is an Honorary Fellow of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) where he leads the Hydro-JULES project which combines a three-dimensional model of the surface and subsurface water cycle with weather and climate models to predict future floods, droughts and water scarcity.

Prof Cang Hui is a professor of mathematical biology and holds the South African Research Chair in Mathematical and Theoretical Physical Biosciences at Stellenbosch University. He is a trustee of the International Initiative for Theoretical Ecology. He works at the interface between mathematics and biology, with interests in proposing models and theories for explaining emerging patterns in ecology and evolution.

Martin Wittenberg is a Professor in the School of Economics and Director of DataFirst at the University of Cape Town. His research interests include data quality of household surveys, and the analysis of inequality and labour markets in South Africa. He holds a PhD in Geography from University of KwaZulu-Natal and an MCom in Economics from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Gerald Ngoma is a economics PhD student in the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town. His current research aims to aid in an understanding of constraints to achieving social equity in nature-based solutions to societal challenges like climate change, food and water security, and poverty in Southern Africa. His research further aims to examine how multilateral funded nature-based solutions projects affect people’s livelihoods and welfare. Gerald holds BSc and MSc in Economics from the University of Zimbabwe.

Phumudzo Ragimana is a second year Master of Philosophy in Environment, Society, and Sustainability student in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science (EGS) at the University of Cape Town. Her research is focused on Differentiated use and value of the river and riparian ecosystem services and local perspectives on future safeguarding: A case study of the upper Mutale sub-catchment, Limpopo River Basin, South Africa. Her research aims to assess how the use and value of riparian and river ecosystem services differ between social groups (including minorities and marginalized groups and specific resource users), and the importance of these differences in exploring how ES delivery or loss could be improved or prevented respectively in ways that are equitable and sustainable.

Andrea Campbell is a Climate Change and Sustainable Development master's student from the ACDI 2021 cohort. Her current research is on social equity and sustainability considerations in multi-lateral funded Nature-based solutions projects across Southern African. She also has a BA in Visual Communication Design from Stellenbosch University and hopes to combine her transdisciplinary academic background with years of field experience in ecotourism to contribute to research at the intersection of conservation and social development.

With a PhD in Zoology Tali is able to understand and interpret the technical details and complexity of a wide range of scientific disciplines. Through a decade of working as a science communicator she has learnt to make science more relatable and accessible to diverse audiences. Tali focuses on both the big picture and the finer detail, developing and implementing science communication strategies that target key audiences, and boost the impact, use, and value of research.

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Michelle completed her PhD in Conservation Biology at the University of Cape Town in 2021 after obtaining a BSc and Honours in Zoology at Rhodes University, and MSc in Conservation Biology at the University of Cape Town. Michelle has a passion for knowledge seeking and education which encouraged her to seek a role in science communication. It is Michelle’s goal to contribute to the improvement of the environmental status of South Africa as well as the greater African continent through research, education and engagement.

Cherie is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI), University of Cape Town. Her current research focuses on identifying equitable and sustainable approaches to nature-based solutions and stakeholder engagement within climate-resilient African landscapes. Cherie has training and practical expertise in applied palaeoecology, system dynamics modelling, multi-stakeholder engagement, and biodiversity conservation in the context of sustainable land-use management and climate change adaptation.