The Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is in the UK.
The Public Domain is a credit.
A study has found that the incidence of storms in some African coastal cities has doubled over the past 30 years.
The risk of mudslides in Freetown in August of last year, when 1,100 people died, was caused by the removal of vegetation. The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) has found that more frequent storm activity in coastal areas can increase flooding.
The study analyzed three decades of satellite data in southern West Africa to find out how the weather patterns had changed as a result of the destruction of forests.
The researchers found that the removal of large areas of woodland had made the effects of global warming worse in coastal areas of the region. The increase in forested areas has been around 40 percent, while the increase in deforested areas has been around double that.
The storms and resulting rain affect both urban and rural areas, as the deforested land was turned over to use for agriculture and fuel for cooking.
Professor Chris Taylor of UKCEH, who led the study, says that the extent of increase in coastal storm activity is likely to vary in different regions, depending on the local climate.
40% of the world's population lives within 100 kilometers of the coast, so flash flooding causes disruption to millions of people's lives. Our findings give a warning to fast-growing coastal cities.
Large numbers of people live close to the sea because of the food and economic benefits.
In Africa and Southeast Asia, large areas of coastal tropical forest are being destroyed, global climate change is already having an impact on communities, and drainage and other infrastructure are often ill-equipped to cope with major flooding. Extreme temperatures and flash flooding from storms are just some of the damaging effects of climate change in Freetown.
Professor Taylor says, "Deforestation is making it harder for some of the least resilient cities on Earth to cope with extreme weather events."
There is previous research linking reduced regional rainfall in Amazonia to depredation. The new study is the first to investigate the impact of deforestation on storm activity in coastal areas.
Dr. Cornelia Klein of UKCEH is a co-author of the study.
The study was part of an ongoing research by UKCEH and partners into past, current and projected future climate change in West Africa, where flash flooding is increasingly common during the rainy season. Professor Taylor led a study that showed global warming was to blame for a tripling of extreme storms in 35 years.
The research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.
Climate change has caused challenges in many parts of the world, according to Sarah.
Global communities can make future decisions on sustainable land management, urban planning and agricultural practices, as well as draw up emergency response plans, thanks to research funded by NERC. They are supporting them in adapting to and dealing with the effects of climate change.
Christopher M. Taylor and his team have studied the effects of late-stage deforestation on storm trends in coastal West Africa. There is a book titled "10.1073/pnas.2109285119."
The National Academy of Sciences has a journal.
The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology provided this.
There is a risk of flash flooding in fast-growing West African coastal cities due to deforestation.
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