Quantifying GHG offset potential of green roofs in Southern Africa
THE QUESTION
Can spatial and remote sensing technology quantify the potential greenhouse gas offset of green roofs in Southern Africa?
LOCATION: TBC
SECTOR: Climate and Environment
TECH: Nature-Based Solution
TIMELINE: September 2022 - Present
PIONEER: Tremayne Stanton-Kennedy
PARTNERS: TBC
The Challenge
Rapid, unplanned urbanisation in sub-Saharan cities occurs at the expense of natural ecosystems and positive benefits they provide for health, habitat and climate mitigation. Livable, climate-ready cities are vital for everyone’s happiness but are not how Africa’s urban centres are evolving. There is a risk for the population who inhabit these cities to be trapped in polluted, crowded, and unpleasant environments. Green infrastructure are ecological systems, both natural and engineered, that act as a living infrastructure. Their primary purpose is to serve as stormwater control, where the structure filters and absorbs rainwater where it falls.
Despite more than 20 years of testing and success, green infrastructure is rarely found in sub-Saharan Africa and is frequently considered a ‘luxury’ in cities with poor communities. Currently, there is an over-reliance on public funding through large climate funds. These funds are notoriously hard to access, slow to implement, and are therefore infrequently accessed by subnational government actors as a result. The impact is that the development of climate-smart cities lacks creative innovation as local governments and small businesses are left behind. There is a need to provide alternative ways to build green infrastructure or facilitate access to global climate funds.
The Idea
This pilot will test an approach to determining the offset potential of green infrastructure in select Sub-Saharan African cities through spatial and remote sensing technology. By quantifying the offsets of green infrastructure, cities in Sub-Saharan Africa could be better placed to access needed funding resources to build and prioritise critical green infrastructure. The data collected will inform revenue generating models and justify offset quality for the building of green infrastructure in Sub-Saharan cities.