Model-Driven Engineering and Creative Arts Approach to Designing Climate Change Response System for Rural Africa: A Case Study of Adum-Aiona Community in Nigeria

Experts at the just concluded climate summit in Paris (COP21) are unanimous in opinion that except urgent measures are taken by all humans, average global temperature rise would soon reach the deadly 2oC mark. When this happens, socio-economic livelihoods, particularly in developing economies, would be dealt lethal blow in the wake of associated natural causes such as increased disease burden, soil nutrient destruction, desertification, food insecurity, among others. To avert imminent dangers, nations, including those from Africa, signed a legally binding universally accepted climate control protocol to propagate and regulate environmentally-friendly behaviours globally. The climate vulnerability of Africa as established by literature is concerning. Despite contributing relatively less than other continents to aggregate environmental injustice, the continent is projected to bear the most brunt of environmental degradation. This is on account of her inability to put systems and mechanisms in place to stem consequences of climate change. Hence, our resolve to use a combination of scientific and artistic models to design a response system for tackling climate challenges in Africa. Our model formulation encompasses computational model and creative arts model for drawing attention to environmentally friendly behaviours and climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. In this work, we focus on rural Africa to share experience of climate change impact on agriculture – mainstay of rural African economy. We examine the carbon footprints of a rural community in Nigeria – the Adum-Aiona community – as case study and for industrial experience. The authors will provide operational data to substantiate claims of existential threats posed by greenhouse gas (GHG) generation on livelihoods of rural dwellers. The study will also design and test a Climate Change Response System (CCRS) that will enable people to adapt and reduce climate change impact. To achieve the research objective, the researchers will review literature, gather requirements, model the proposed system using Unified Modelling Language (UML), and test CCRS statically. We expect that the implementation of the proposed system will enable people mitigate the effects of, and adapt to, climate change-induced socio-economic realities. This is besides the fact that the empirical data provided by the study will help clear doubts about the real or perceived threats of climate change. Finally, the industrial experience and case study we share from Africa using model-driven engineering approach will scale up the repository of knowledge of both climate change research and model-driven engineering community.