Climate Risk Informed Decision Analysis Workshop (CRIDA):

By: Mbali Mashele

A Climate Risk Informed Decision Analysis (CRIDA) Workshop was held at the Hippo Hollow Country Estate, in Hazyview from the 11th -12th of March 2020.  A total number of 16 participants attended the workshop from the following organisations:  IUCMA, SANParks, K2C BR, DARDLEA, DEFF NRM, Irrigation boards, Bushbuckridge Local Municipality, WWF-SA, RCL Foods, AWARD and UNESCO.

CRIDA is a collaborative bottom-up approach aimed to assess risk and plan for Climate Change Adaptation specifically for sustainable water and ecosystem management.  The CRIDA approach has been used globally for planning water resources infrastructure. 

The objectives of the workshop was to transfer knowledge and technologies to address climate change impacts on water resources. To engage with stakeholders and evaluate the interests, and lastly to the identify pilot areas for the implementation of CRIDA in the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Region.  

Dr Koen Verbist, from UNESCO said that ‘Stakeholders interact with the water system frequently, therefore, they are more knowledgeable on the different risks that have the potential of being uncontrollable in changing conditions.  The CRIDA approach changes the way decisions are made, as stakeholders are brought in early in the process, with the greatest source of uncertainty, being the use of Global Circulation Models, which is added later in the process”.

Participants were trained on the 4 out of 5 steps of CRIDA, and these are 1) participatory scoping and problem definition; 2) bottom-up vulnerability assessment; 3) strategy development, including formulation of adaptation pathways; 4) formulation and evaluation of alternatives. 

Following the workshop, further technical training on CRIDA will be conducted for Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Region Stakeholders. This will enable the local stakeholder to implement the tool, to share knowledge, to learn whilst ensuring that planning contains climate change considerations for the uncertain future. In addition, CRIDA is a tool has the potential to foster joint synergies and collaborations with ongoing and planned initiatives on climate change adaptation projects by various stakeholders that participated in the workshop. 


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