Climatic disasters in Burkina Faso from 1960 to 2020: Occurrence, Spatio- temporal dynamics and Socio-environmental consequences

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Résumé

Context and background Climate variability is a reality in Burkina Faso, and climatic disasters are the visible effects. This poses huge challenges for governments and local populations alike. However, it is difficult to implement any real policy without understanding the phenomenon and its social and environmental consequences. Consequently,the main hypothesis of the study is that natural disasters are dynamic and therefore cause socio-environmental problems in the country.Goal and Objectives:The main objective of the study is to analyze climate-related disasters in Burkina Faso between 1960 and 2020 and their socio-environmental impacts. This involves analyzing the dynamics of climatic disasters between 1960 and 2020,identifying the areas affected by climatic disasters and analyzing the socio-environmental impacts of climatic disasters
Methodology:The study is based on combining quantitative and qualitative methods.Results:The results show that droughts and floods are the main climatic disasters in Burkina Faso over the period 1960-2020, although a succession of droughts(57.14%) and floods (42.86%) was observed over the period 1960-1999.Conversely, there were more floods than droughts over the period 2001-2020.Furthermore, the socio-environmental and territorial impact of climatic disasters varies according to Burkina Faso's climatic zones. In addition, many waterworks have been destroyed, with negative external effects on the environment. In view of these results, the government of Burkina Faso would be well advised to review the specifications for the country's waterworks in order to adapt them to the new conditions. In addition, the agricultural seeds promoted by Burkina Faso's agronomic research institutes should be geared towards seeds that can adapt to water. This will reduce the impact of climate disasters in the years to come

Mots-clés

Climatic disasters, spatial dynamics, socio-environmental consequences,Burkina Faso