The project links mountains and cities, strengthening the use of long-term observations in research and decision-making related to climate, air quality and health in Kenya and East Africa. It plans to establish a community of practice, connecting researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.
East Africa’s mountains are critical for water supply, food security, biodiversity, and human health, yet they are also increasingly exposed to climate extremes, wildfire smoke, dust outbreaks, and rapidly growing urban emissions. Kenya exemplifies this challenge: a semi-arid, mountainous country with a fast-growing population and economy, where droughts, intense rainfall events, and harmful air pollution add episodic stresses that affect agriculture and human health.
To strengthen evidence-based decision-making and improve public health, a comprehensive and integrated climate and atmospheric observation network, as well as a sustainable research infrastructure, is necessary. The project addresses this existing lack in sub-Saharan Africa by establishing a community-of-practice, based on a 3-day science–policy symposium including a one-day excursion to the Mount Kenya station, which will focus on mountain monitoring, data and data exchange, and co-design of an academic engagement plan.
Key Activities & Outputs
The symposium will consolidate existing datasets and observation networks to provide mountain-city tailored approaches that can be used for policy. In addition, there will be hands-on training across the data lifecycle. Outputs within the small grants 2026-2027 period include:
- A curated “mountain–city” demonstration data package
- A catalogue of existing datasets and gaps relevant to mountain environments in Kenya/East Africa, covering atmospheric composition, meteorological and hydrological data, as well as land-use data
- A jointly authored symposium report and policy brief highlighting priority areas and decision needs
- A 12-month academic engagement roadmap, engaging researchers and professionals, early career students with thesis topics, and co-supervision links to sustain collaboration beyond the event
- A community of practice bringing together researchers to support science-based and solutions-oriented decision-making
Website
https://east-africa-mountain-monitoring-cop.github.io
Contact
Syprose Nyadida, Kenya Meteorological Department, syprosenyadida1@gmail.com
Jörg Klausen, Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, joerg.klausen@meteoswiss.ch
This project is supported by GEO Mountains under the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to GEO Mountains under its Adaptation at Altitude Programme (project number 7F-10208.01.02) and by the Mountain Research Initiative (SCNAT project numbers FNW0009_004-2023-01 and FNW0015_004-2026-01).
Cover image by Steve Enoch