POLICY BRIEF

The document highlights the vulnerability of sub-Saharan African port infrastructure to climate hazards such as sea level rise, storm surges, and extreme rainfall. It notes that while the industry is aware of climate change, this awareness is rarely translated into practical planning. The brief recommends establishing a close dialogue between climate scientists and port practitioners, reviewing port master plans, and providing designers with simple, quantified projections of climate variables to improve long-term resilience.

• Port infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa is highly vulnerable to climate-related impacts due to its location in dynamic coastal environments, facing risks from storm surges, extreme waves, high winds, and extreme rainfall.
• African port cities are projected to experience some of the highest increases in asset exposure to coastal flood risk globally between 2005 and 2070, specifically mentioning Conakry, Douala, Lagos, Luanda, and Mogadishu.
• There is a gap between the port industry's general awareness of climate change and the implementation of practical actions in port planning, partly due to short planning horizons.
• Current port design guidance in Africa often includes sea level rise projections but typically neglects other climate variables such as temperature, rainfall, and storminess.
• Uncertainty in climate projections acts as a barrier to their use in deterministic design approaches, which usually rely on additional design allowances to manage such uncertainty.
• The document recommends a comprehensive policy mapping of the African ports sector to understand how the institutional environment, legislation, and regulation support or hinder climate resilience.

APA

Woolhouse, G., & Lumbroso, D. (2015). POLICY BRIEF. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/FCFA_PolicyBrief_PORTS_WEB.pdf

Chicago

Woolhouse, George, and Darren Lumbroso. POLICY BRIEF. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2015. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/FCFA_PolicyBrief_PORTS_WEB.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Woolhouse |first1=George |last2=Lumbroso |first2=Darren |title=POLICY BRIEF |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=January 2015 |url=http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/FCFA_PolicyBrief_PORTS_WEB.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{woolhouse2015policy, author = {Woolhouse, George and Lumbroso, Darren}, title = {{POLICY BRIEF}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2015}, month = jan, url = {http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/FCFA_PolicyBrief_PORTS_WEB.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }