GISSA Ukubuzana 2012: General paper A Web-based data dissemination platform for climate-change risk and vulnerability by Bolelang Sibolla, Anwar Vahed, Francois Engelbrecht, Mogesh Naidoo, Mugu Mtsetfwa, CSIR; and Ingo Simonis, International Geospational Services Institute Abstract Climate change poses a major threat to environmental sustainability. In Africa, sectors which face projected vulnerability include, food security, public health and water resources. A general increase in extreme weather events is also predicted and the effects thereof are beginning to be felt. In order for responsible parties and stake holders to respond to these threats, research needs to be undertaken to understand the effects of climate change. Consequently, data has to be available for such research. The rapid advance in computer technology has led to heavy reliance on digital predictive modelling and digital data dissemination which have both been leveraged in this project. We present data sets of predicted climate-change variables, over selected urban regions of the African continent from six different types of models, which constitute a novel research resource. These datasets can be used in a host of further studies on how to address effects of climate change and can help stake-holders undertake preventative measures. We further present data dissemination technologies based on web based Open Standards for easy and free access of selected datasets from the implemented models. The advantage we provide with web based methods of data access is that the user does not need to store the whole host of datasets that they require for research, but can rather query and access selected portions of the data. We provide the user with a platform to save the downloaded data in any of the selected data formats, on the fly, over web based protocols and requests. We also provide the user with the option of viewing time series of data on user selected locations dynamically without the need to save the data. The user has the ability to view datasets of projected data as maps which can be saved for future use. Keywords climate change, risk and vulnerability, data dissemination, web based standards Introduction With widespread observations in rises in temperature and sea level, as well as extreme weather conditions throughout the globe, climate-change has become evident [1, 2]. Climate-change poses a major threat to environmental sustainability. Africa is most likely to be affected by future climate change; there has been evidence of changes in the magnitude, intensity and distribution of storms that produce floods as well as droughts. This leads to great vulnerability and susceptibility to risk because a majority of African societies still rely directly on the natural environment for livelihood [3]. Sectors in Africa which face projected likelihood of vulnerability as a result of climate change and global warming include food security, public health, and water resources. The research fraternity focuses on two broad policy areas in response to climate-change, namely adaptation of societies to the new climatic conditions and secondly, mitigation of effects of climate-change. Adaptation refers to the adjustment in a system’s behaviour and characteristics that will help its ability to better cope with the resulting effects of climate- change. In this case a system refers to an ecological, socio-economic society. The main purpose of adaptation is to reduce the vulnerability of societies to the risks that result from by climate-change [4]. Mitigation refers to the efforts taken to alleviate the effects of climate change. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and UNFCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) describes mitigation as the implementation of policies that aim at reducing the sources of green house gases, which cause global warming, and enhance their sinks [5]. In order for decision makers and relevant parties, such as the scientific community and policy makers, to construct effective mitigation and adaptive strategies, research needs to be undertaken to understand the effects of climate change. Part of understanding the effects of climate change requires the development of realistic projections of climate conditions in the near and distant future [3]. These projections are attained using computational models that are based on the laws of physics which represent interactions between the atmosphere, land and oceans which form the climate system. Two types of models classes are worth mentioning Global Climate Models (GCMs) which capture the global changes, and Regional Models which look at changes at regional scale. GCMs can be translated to region scale through downscaling methods. Downscaling refers to the processes used to translate projections of change from global models to regional scale. This can be done using either empirical or dynamic methodologies. Davis [3] gives the advantages and disadvantages of using either method; an important point of note is that empirical models are less computationally