Dewald van Niekerk is Professor of Geography and founder of the African Centre for Disaster Studies at North-West University. As a social scientist, he applies the application of season-to-subseasonal (S2S) forecasts to enhance anticipatory governance, disaster risk reduction, and early warning systems. His focus is on integrating S2S information into decision-making processes to improve resilience, particularly in Southern Africa, where climate variability poses significant risks to communities and development. A B3 NRF-rated researcher, he has authored over 150 publications and led numerous local and international disaster risk reduction (DRR) projects. He is Editor-in-Chief of Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies and played a key role in establishing the Southern Africa Society for Disaster Reduction. Dewald leads postgraduate programmes in geography and disaster risk sciences. His research focuses on DRR governance, resilience, early warning, complexity theory, anticipatory governance, and institutional capacity building for transdisciplinary DRR.
Homepage: https://news.nwu.ac.za/experts/dewald-van-niekerk
