Developing a reproducible and scalable climate atlas for Ghana through strategic cooperation between Danish Meteorological Institute and Ghana Meteorological Agency

 

Ghana’s vulnerability to climate change is amplified by lack of capacity among different agencies to undertake and coordinate adaptive measures informed by an effective climate services provision. Climate services provide tailored information to support climate adaptation at the local level. One common form of climate service is the provision of downscaled climate projections, bias adjusted using local observations and tailor-made to meet local society needs based on extensive stakeholder engagement. A well-established example of such services already exist in Denmark’s Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) through the Danish Climate Atlas. Therefore, through a Danish governmant funded Strategic Sector Cooperation, DMI is part of a project with Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) which is strengthening authoritative and relevant climate services provision in Ghana through the increased use of climate information and meteorological data in climate change adaptation and climate risk management. This is being done through DMI collaborating with GMet in the development of a National Climate Atlas projecting climate change at regional level in Ghana for three different greenhouse gas emission scenarios. In the heart of this collaboraton is capacity building carried out via the principle of co-defining, co-development and co-producing the atlas by DMI and GMet researchers working with local stakeholders. Recognising the potential to learn from each other and to enable the development and replication of climate services in new regions, DMI developed KAPy (Klimaatlases in Python). KAPy is a tool that builds on software framework centered on the Python programing language, utilizing the extensive tools already established in the programming community. KAPy’s use of workflow control tools enables reproducibility and scalability, while its open-source approach drives both effective collaboration and transparency. Here, we illustate the capability of how this tool is central in producing climate service information in Ghana, including an extensive analysis of the efforts required to produce climate-service ready indicators starting from scratch. How internet bandwidth limitations can be avoided by using KAPy is also shown, thus increasing the productivity and enabling implementation in resource limited situations, such as those in Africa. We conclude by highlighting that KAPy contributes to making climate services provision more transparent and enables DMI to utilize it in other African countries to strengthen their climate services provision.