National Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA) for Roads in Lesotho: Development of a Vulnerability Assessment Tool for Lesotho Roads and Vulnerability Assessments of Selected Catchment Areas

Abstract

The Kingdom of Lesotho is a landlocked country in southern Africa. Large pockets of the population reside along the Senqu River Valley in the south-eastern reaches of the country, and some of the roads traverse this river to connect to the mountainous areas. Increasing temperatures and changing rainfall patterns due to climate change negatively impacts Lesotho’s road network. Sustained land degradation, soil erosion, and increased demand on ecosystem services threatens infrastructure and the health of Lesotho’s natural ecosystems, including wetlands. The primary aim of this study was to undertake a review of existing frameworks for climate and environment vulnerability assessments for roads and to adapt these to the Lesotho context in line with Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocol on transport, the National Strategic Development Plan of Lesotho, and the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) Design Guidelines. The adapted climate and environmental risk framework then formed the basis for developing a climate change risk and vulnerability and assessment methodology/tool.