The climate in some of the most densely populated cities in the world is swinging from droughts to floods and return as increasing temperatures play through the global water cycle, a study in charge of the beneficial organization Wateraid It is shown on Wednesday.
The South and Southeast Asia face the strongest moistry trends, while Europe, the Middle East and Africa of the North are becoming increasingly dry, the researchers found in a 42 -year study of meteorological data extracted from more than 100 of the most populated cities in the world.
“There will be winners and losers associated with climate change,” said Michael Singer of the Water Research Institute of the University of Cardiff, one of the study authors. “It's already happening.”
The capital of Jakarta of Hangzhou and Indonesia in China headed the list of cities that suffer from “climate cervical whiplaz”, or a rapid succession of floods and prolonged droughts, the study showed.
Up to 15% of the cities surveyed also faced the worst of both worlds, with extreme risks of flooding and drought at the same time, including the city of Dallas, the Chinese shopping center of Shanghai and Baghdad, the capital of Iraq.
“It cannot assume that each place can have a similar response to atmospheric warming,” added Singer. “He doesn't care who you are, if you are rich or poor or have a great infrastructure or not.”
The coastal city of Hangzhou of China established a record with more than 60 days of high extreme temperatures last year, and was also beaten by serious floods that forced tens of thousands to evacuate.
A fifth of the cities has seen an investment in the climatic extremes, with the capital of Colombo de Sri Lanka and the Indian Financial Center of Mumbai “turning” to become much more wet, while the Egyptian capital of El Cairo and Hong Kong is constantly more dry.
Many cities that built infrastructure to maximize the few water supplies or mitigate flood damage now face completely different circumstances, and must invest to adapt, Singer warned.
The few who experience favorable changes include the Japanese capital of Tokyo, London and southern Guangzhou of China, which had significantly less humid and dry months during the period from 2002 to 2023 that in the previous two decades.
