The problem: Building climate change resilience necessarily means building urban resilience. Africa's future is dominated by a rapidly increasing urban population with complicated demographic, economic, political, spatial and infrastructural transitions. This creates complex climate vulnerabilities of critical consequence in the co-dependent city-regions. Climate change substantially complicates the trajectories of African development, exacerbated by climate information that is poorly attuned to the needs of African decision makers. Critical gaps are how climate processes interact at the temporal and spatial scales that matter for decision making, limited institutional capacity to develop and then act on climate information, and inadequate means, methods, and structures to bridge the divides. Current modalities in climate services are largely supply driven and rarely begin with the multiplicity of climate sensitive development challenges. There is a dominant need to address this disconnect at the urban scale, yet climate research in Africa is poorly configured to respond, and the spatial scale and thematic foci are not well attuned to urban problems. Most climate-related policies and development strategies focus at the national scale and are sectorally based, resulting in a poor fit to the vital urban environments with their tightly interlocking place-based systems. Response: FRACTAL's aim is to advance scientific knowledge about regional climate responses to anthropogenic forcings, enhance the integration of this knowledge into decision making at the co-dependent city-region scale, and thus enable responsible development pathways. We focus on city-region scales of climate information and decision making. Informed by the literature, guided by co-exploration with decision makers, we concentrate on two key cross-cutting issues: Water and Energy, and secondarily their influence on food security. We work within and across disciplinary boundaries (transdisciplinarity) and develop all aspects of the research process in collaboration with user groups (co-exploration).The project functions through three interconnected work packages focused on three Tier 1 cities (Windhoek, Maputo and Lusaka), a secondary focus on three Tier 2 cities (Blantyre, Gaborone and Harare), and two self-funded partner cities (Cape Town and eThekwini). Work Package 1 (WP1) is an ongoing and sustained activity operating as a learning laboratory for pilot studies to link research from WP2 and 3 to a real world iterative dialogue and decision process. WP1 frames, informs, and steers the research questions of WP2 and 3, and so centres all research on needs for responsible development pathways of city-region systems. WP2 addresses the decision making space in cities; the political, economic, technical and social determinants of decision making, and seeks to understand the opportunities for better incorporation of climate information into local decision making contexts. WP3, the majority effort, focuses on advancing understanding of the physical climate processes that govern the regional system, both as observed and simulated. This knowledge grounds the development of robust and scale relevant climate information, and the related analysis and communication. This is steered explicitly by WP1's perspective of urban climate change risk, resilience, impacts, and decisions for adaptation and development. The project will frame a new paradigm for user-informed, knowledge-based decisions to develop pathways to resilience for the majority population. It will provide a step change in understanding the cross-scale climate processes that drive change and so enable enhanced uptake of climate information in near to medium-term decision making. The project legacy will include improved scientific capacity and collaboration, provide transferable knowledge to enhance decision making on the African continent, and in this make significant contribution to academic disciplines.

This project will look at the relationship between governance, power and knowledge structures and how these influence behaviour, actions and decision taking for sustainable ecosystems. It will link several social science techniques (e.g. social network analysis and agent-based modelling) to comprehensively map all relevant social and ecological knowledge flows regarding ecosystems in two substantive areas where there is pressure on ecosystem services. With our local partners, we will look at two cases in the western Indian Ocean (Kenya) and the Bay of Bengal (Bangladesh) regarding coastal zone resource uses and management. The purpose is to generate more generic data across comparative studies about how decisions for policy and for action are taken at local levels. We will look at the networks that individuals use to help them make decisions regarding their livelihoods. These will be understood within the context of the global economy and other decision networks impacting upon the social-ecological interrelationships at the local level. Our own understanding will be framed within the literature around social-ecological complexity and complex adaptive management. The project will substantively focus on strengthening the sustainable management of coastal ecosystems with a process focus on the political economy for poverty reduction and to understand better how livelihoods can be maintained and ecosystem services valued and preserved. The project is asking for funds for two UK partners (The University of York and the Stockholm Environment Institute, Oxford) to work with six partners in Bangladesh and in Kenya in close collaboration with policy makers and practitioners there in order to develop an understanding of sustainable norms for decision making in the use of coastal ecosystem services for poverty reduction. Put most simply, we are going to talk to relevant people in Kenya and Bangladesh to see where and from whom they get information, about what, and present this as a knowledge network map. We will then work with those stakeholders to see if it is the right information for their needs (i.e. to make the decisions that they need to make). We will deepen our and their understanding of what needs to happen by the use of agent based models of the systems. This will also bring together the social understanding of the milieu within which information is passed around and used with a more technical analysis of that information itself and its utility. Our work tasks are mapped to the knowledge gaps identified in the ESPA call (page 7). However, we propose that degradation and sustainability drivers should be considered as a part of the same complex system. Little is known about the way in which multiple drivers interact, feedback upon, or balance each other so it is currently very difficult to attribute individual drivers to patterns of degradation or sustainability. To capture this complexity we propose 4 tasks: A) Investigate multiple drivers across a range of disciplines (biophysical, social, political and economic). B) Map the horizontal and vertical networks and knowledge diffusion patterns. C) Use socio-ecological models to analyse and model interactions among drivers. D) Reflectively link the impact of the WD-NACE project (see also Impact Plan). Our chosen criteria of success will be by means of an assessment of post-workshop feedback, but we shall also agree a criterion of success with each research collaborator and with our partner organisation. These criteria can then be used as the touchstone of impact. It is an expected outcome of WD-NACE that the conceptual framework linking ecosystem and livelihoods domains, knowledge networks and decision-making structures will be developed and improved. In developing such a model, we would expect that it could be applied to a range of settings such as by policy-making institutions and international development organizations as well as by more local users.

This pilot project, AQD-Nairobi, is designed to integrate low and high temporal resolution low-cost air quality (AQ) measurements to determine AQ drivers in Nairobi and be an exemplar scientific study for sub-Saharan Africa. This collaboration is a new partnership between NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), the Stockholm Environment Institute Africa (SEI Africa) and SEI York. SEI Africa is the secretariat for the Air Quality Network for Kenya, whose membership includes National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI), Kenya Meteorology Department (KMD), the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), UNEP, the Nairobi County Government and the Muungano. Muunagano is a local community organisation supporting urban dwellers in Nairobi's informal settlements, and is the Kenyan branch of Slum Dwellers International. The inception of the project came through an informal loan from CEH of equipment to a SEI York pilot project in 2015 exploring novel methods of understanding community exposure to air pollution in a Nairobi informal settlement, which was co-ordinated by SEI Africa. The work established the urgent need for chemically resolved air pollution exposure studies to be integrated with more indicative methods. NERC CEH NC and other projects have developed low cost AQ monitoring methods. In particular CEH has developed the science behind two low-cost low-time resolution methods: the active low flow sampling method, DEnuder for Long-Term Atmospheric sampling (DELTA) for measurement of inorganic trace gases and speciated aerosols, and a passive sampler method (ALPHAS) measuring ammonia. Both methods have been applied in networks across the UK and Europe. Poor AQ is estimated to account for 5.5 million premature deaths annually both from indoor and outdoor pollution. In 2014, the United Nations General Assembly (UNEA) adopted a resolution for AQ which would encourage governments to set standards and policies across sectors to manage the negative impacts of air pollution. Nairobi, Kenya, is a city with poor AQ which frequently exceeds limits for particulate matter (PM) set out by the World Health Organisation. Information on the chemically specific drivers of the poor AQ in Nairobi are poorly understood. AQD-Nairobi will assess the applicability of integrating low cost-low temporal resolution monitoring with mobile PM sensors to develop air AQ indicators. The experimental component of the project will be a 12 month deployment of monthly resolution PM composition measurements with DELTA samplers at the KMD meteorological station and an intensive citizen science pilot study in Mukuru, an informal settlement in Nairobi. The intensive work will be organised logistically by SEI York and delivered on the ground by SEI Africa and the Muungano. Community champion volunteers will carry the mobile PM backpacks and simultaneously a network of passive samplers will be deployed across Mukuru. Using citizen science communication techniques, simple maps and AQ driver metrics will be disseminated to the Muungano and the Air Quality Network for Kenya stakeholders. Data interpretation and visualisation will be used to deliver information to both individuals and policy-making stakeholders. If successful, this pilot will deliver an excellent approach for assessing AQ drivers at reasonable economic cost for urban communities. This "proof of concept' international partnership, applying mixed technologies is an essential first step to enable development of large-scale long-term partnerships for NERC in this area. AQD-Nairobi will deliver new science that cannot be achieved by UK communities alone or by existing international collaborations.

Insects represent a vast but underexploited food resource. They have a global distribution and are amongst the most abundant animals in the world. Recent evaluations of their nutritional quality have also shown many of them to be comparable or superior as a source of nutrition to many of our current livestock animals. Although not widely used in European societies, insects are already traditionally consumed in two thirds of countries worldwide, with over 2000 species being eaten around the globe. As a widespread resource that can be collected without cultivation, the sustainable harvesting and preservation of insects offer solutions to food security problems, particularly in impoverished communities within developing world nations. Whilst this potential has been realised in some places (e.g. mopane worm in South Africa), insects have been underutilized in many areas where food security is poor. Our project will address food security issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many areas, such as the region of Benin where we work, experience seasonal food shortages. These arise as a consequence of extended dry seasons when crops will not grow. Limited development of food storage and preservation at the community level compounds this problem, as periods of plenty cannot be used to improve food security in famine times. This project aims to bridge this food security challenge through developing termites as a sustainable and locally available food source. Each year, a single termite mound will produce thousands of winged individuals which will disperse from the mound, and can be collected locally. These termites, which are already eaten traditionally in the region by some communities, are highly nutritious. They are naturally 'overproduced' - of the thousands who fly from a mound, 99% are eaten by birds or reptiles. As such, alate termites offer great prospects as a sustainable food product. We will assess the efficacy of different methods for the collection of termites, and combine this with an assessment of the total potential yield of termites regionally to determine the magnitude of natural capital represented in alate termites. We will then improve harvesting techniques, and develop preservation techniques that allow the product to be traded commercially/used locally over famine periods. Together, these data and techniques will allow us to determine the value-chain of a termite based food product. Within community use and local marketability will be examined as two means of maintaining nutrition through famine periods. Our project will work in collaboration with communities in Northern Benin, and supply them with the direct means to enhance food security using termites as a food product. In doing so, combining existing regional traditions of eating insects with modern advances in food preservation and production, food security can be targeted using an entirely local approach. The project aims further to be a proof of concept to establish more widespread use of termite as a food source across sub Saharan Africa.

A healthy water environment is essential to life. Freshwater ecosystems occupy less than 1% of the Earth's surface, make up only 0.01% of all water, yet host ca. 10% of all known species. They also deliver vital ecosystem services, such as climate regulation and the provision of food, fuel, fibre, and water resources. Besides sustaining a disproportionately high share of global biodiversity, freshwater ecosystems are far more imperilled than terrestrial or marine realms nonetheless remain largely overlooked. This is critical in tropical regions, which are under intensive pressure from land use change, one of the main drivers of global biodiversity loss. In the Amazon, the world's largest and most biodiverse river basin, knowledge on the impacts of anthropogenic activities is largely insufficient. Spreading across nine South American countries, the Amazon is of local and global relevance for the provisioning of myriad ecosystem services that are vital for human well-being. For instance, it is responsible for rainfall generation across South America, global climate regulation, and for 1/5 of the world's freshwater that reaches the oceans. However, much of the Amazon region is now severely threatened - it holds much of the land that could be available for agricultural expansion, which is being facilitated by new strains of crops, climatic change, and infrastructure development such as new and improved roads. As Brazil holds more than 60% of the Amazon, representing 50% of its territory, it has a large responsibility in its management and conservation. One of the most poorly studied elements of the Amazonian freshwater ecosystems is how stream biodiversity is affected by human activities in agriculture landscapes. Small streams are the most extensive and widespread freshwater ecosystem in the basin, connect terrestrial and aquatic systems, host an outstanding biodiversity, support local livelihoods, accumulate multiple impacts that occur in their catchments, and have cascading effects on larger rivers. Therefore, the future of the Amazon river basin is dependent on the integrity of headwater streams. The main objective of my proposal is to further our understanding of the consequences of human impacts on tropical headwater streams, propose solutions to promote their conservation, and influence conservation and land use policy and practice in the Amazon. I will achieve this in four integrated work packages (WP). WP1 includes collecting multispecies (fish and aquatic invertebrates) data from multiple streams in the Brazilian Amazon, building on a large-scale survey I led in 2010 that resulted in important publications (e.g. Science, Journal of Applied Ecology). This repeated assessment will be the first comprehensive evaluation of temporal changes in tropical stream biodiversity in agriculture landscapes. In WP2, I will explore the potential of cutting-edge approaches such as environmental DNA (eDNA) and the quantification of pesticides as valuable tools to advancing our understanding of human pressures in tropical streams. In WP3 I will develop an ambitious and pioneering field experiment on stream fragmentation to better understand the impacts of roads (i.e. culverts and associated infrastructure), one of the most neglected drivers of stream degradation. This will be the first field manipulative experiment to measure the impacts of stream fragmentation by roads in the tropics. In WP4, I will promote transformational change in the Amazon by integrating the information from previous WPs to estimate the extent of stream degradation across the Amazon River basin, develop mechanisms to promote sustainable stream management, and inform policy. I expect to substantially contribute to the science and practice of stream conservation by bringing about a step-change in our understanding in the tropics and linking these findings to urgent policy and management challenges in the Brazilian Amazon.