The impact of climate variability and change on environmental health in South Africa

Understanding the importance of climate variability and the potential to predict the impact of climate change at the national level is integral to developing effective and sustainable climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. This study examines the changes in climate variability and change occurring in the Southern African region, as well as the potential impacts of these changes on environmental health in South Africa. This study analyzed weather-related disasters in South Africa (1941–2021) using media-sourced data from the SAWS Caelum publication, alongside temperature trends from the CRU TS 4 datasets (1941–2020), assessed via spatiotemporal analysis and time-series evaluations for major cities. A systematic literature review, guided by the PRISMA and AMSTAR protocols, synthesized peer-reviewed research on climate impacts in African cities, and 72 publications were included. The visualization was performed using the GrADS software. The results show that in more recent years, particularly from the 2000s onwards, there has been a noticeable increase in positive anomalies, indicating a trend toward warmer temperatures. This aligns with global observations of climate change, in which temperature anomalies have become increasingly positive over time. In essence, of the six variables that characterize climate-related research in SADC, four (> 60%) focus on climate and the burden of disease. Heat-related illnesses associated with vector-borne diseases (25%) in the SADC region preceded waterborne (19%) and respiratory diseases (13%). The hottest region, with a maximum temperature > 28 °C, seems to be expanding over the Northern Cape from period 1941–1970 all-way to 1991–2020, while the extremely cold elevated regions in the east are slowly becoming warmer over time, both during the day and at night. For this reason, understanding the complex relationship between climate variability and public health is not only an academic endeavour but also an important requirement for protecting human lives and promoting resilient communities. Thus, examining the complex effects of climate variability on human health and investigating the interconnected problems and possibilities brings in the pursuit of a better and more sustainable future that aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals.