THE CAPE TOWN DROUGHT: LESSONS LEARNED

Associate Professor Gina Ziervogel, Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town

The Cape Town drought and associated ‘Day Zero’ were a shock to the city. As cities increasingly face climate shocks like this it is important to reflect on the nature of the responses undertaken during the crisis. These two lectures look back at what happened within the City of Cape Town municipal government and look forward to what lessons can be learned and how these are now being addressed to build a more adaptive city.

LECTURE TITLES

1. Reflecting on the Cape Town drought: how did local government respond?

2. Lessons learned from the drought: building an adaptive city

Recommended reading

Joubert, Leonie and Ziervogel, Gina (2019). Day Zero: One city’s response to a record-breaking drought. www.dayzero.org.za

Kaiser, Gisela, and Neil Macleod. 2018. Cape Town – Where We’ve Been and Where We Want to Go. Civil Engineering 9 (October): 8–12.

Vogel, Coleen, and David Olivier. 2019. Re-Imagining the Potential of Effective Drought Responses in South Africa. Regional Environmental Change 19 (6): 1561–1570.