Sitas, N., Z. V. Harmáčková, J. A. Anticamara, A. Arneth, R. Badola, R. Biggs, R. Blanchard, L. Brotons, M. Cantele, K. Coetzer, R. DasGupta, E. Den Belder, S. Ghosh, A. Guisan, H. Gundimeda, M. Hamann, P. A. Harrison, S. Hashimoto, J. Hauck, B. Klatt, K. Kok, R. M. Krug, A. Niamir, P. J. O'Farrell, S. Okayasu, I. Palomo, L. M. Pereira, P. Riordan, F. Santos-Martín, O. Selomane, Y. Shin, and M. Valle Tobar. 2019. Exploring the usefulness of scenario archetypes in science-policy processes: experience across IPBES assessments. Ecology and Society 24(3):35. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11039-240335

Understanding the interactions of the social and biophysical drivers of land degradation is crucial for developing adaptive management actions for future sustainability. A research-praxis project, the ‘Tsitsa Project’ (TP), applies a social-ecological systems (SES) approach where researchers, natural resource managers, and residents collaborate to support sustainable livelihoods and improved natural resource management for the degraded Tsitsa River Catchment (TRC) in South Africa. A system diagramming approach was coupled with findings from interviews, workshops, literature, and two conceptual frameworks. Data inputs were qualitatively integrated to provide a systemic snapshot of how the context-specific social and biophysical drivers are interlinked and how they interact, revealing multiple processes that operate simultaneously to cause and exacerbate land degradation. Physical and climatic variables, changes in land use and cover, and overgrazing were identified as key factors leading to degradation. Additionally, poverty and disempowerment were also important. While little can be done to influence the physical aspects (steep topography and duplex soils) and climatic variables (extreme rainfall and drought), carefully planned changes in land use and management could produce dual-benefits for improving landscape conditions and sustainable livelihoods. This analysis will inform integrated planning processes to monitor, avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation.

The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) will likely experience more frequent heat waves by 2100, the health impacts of which are being prioritized for strategic focus. We identified challenges and opportunities for better operationalizing heat wave considerations within the Environmental Health Department of the City of Johannesburg. By obtaining a deeper appreciation of the ‘issues of concern’ and existing ‘contradictions’, that is the context in which these practitioners are located, the opportunities and barriers to engagement, helps to surface the issues that may confront the City when planning for extreme heat and climate change adaptation in the future. Currently, heat waves are absent from the local Department’s mandate, with unclear legislative requirements blurring the responsibility for heat wave planning. Service delivery backlogs relegate heat wave considerations, as do the Department’s constituencies for whom heat waves are not yet of concern. However, heat wave planning supports community health education; raising public awareness of associated health risks and should be considered in future ‘climate proofing’ the City.