Edem Mahu | University Of Ghana, Accra,Legon (original) (raw)

Papers by Edem Mahu

Research Square (Research Square), Jan 25, 2023

Quaternary Science Advances

Frontiers in Psychology

Plastic pollution is both a societal and environmental problem and citizen science has shown to b... more Plastic pollution is both a societal and environmental problem and citizen science has shown to be a useful tool to engage both the public and professionals in addressing it. However, knowledge on the educational and behavioral impacts of citizen science projects focusing on marine litter remains limited. Our preregistered study investigates the impact of the citizen science project Citizen Observation of Local Litter in coastal ECosysTems (COLLECT) on the participants’ ocean literacy, pro-environmental intentions and attitudes, well-being, and nature connectedness, using a pretest-posttest design. A total of 410 secondary school students from seven countries, in Africa (Benin, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria) and Asia (Malaysia) were trained to sample plastics on sandy beaches and to analyze their collection in the classroom. Non-parametric statistical tests (n = 239 matched participants) demonstrate that the COLLECT project positively impacted ocean literacy (i....

MRS Advances, Apr 21, 2023

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Apr 28, 2023

Coastal hazards such as erosion, flooding and pollution are major problems globa... more Coastal hazards such as erosion, flooding and pollution are major problems globally, exacerbated by increasing frequency and severity of hydro-meteorological extremes amidst inadequate technology and adaptive capacity. The Ghanaian coast is an example of a region impacted by such problems. Factors hampering the management and improvement of these issues include the lack of data, insufficient communication structures between stakeholders and missing pathways to informed decisions with sustained impact.In this context, the MANCOGA project stands out by employing a co-design approach to develop a robust and participatory Nature-based Solution (NbS) to coastal hazards. The co-design pilot phase has drawn the focus onto steps for restoring wetlands, mangroves in particular, to provide sustainable livelihoods by protecting and reinvigorating coastal systems and environmental health.In the implementation phase, MANCOGA will evaluate mangrove ecosystem services for their potential as NbS to a number of pressing local issues. A Digital Twin will use What-If scenarios to predict the role of mangroves as NbS for flood mitigation and erosion prevention. Being a dominant Blue Carbon ecosystem, mangroves will also contribute to climate change adaptation strategies as well as provide socio-economic value (e.g., through carbon credits). The wider effects on water quality, through the reduction of eutrophication, is critical for local economics, including fisheries. We employ aerial photography and remote sensing to identify possible nature-based solution areas.The comprehensive community involvement of stakeholders from all societal and administrative levels facilitates frameworks to understand and evaluate effectiveness of NbS applications. The relationships and collaborative approach developed during the co-design phase will guarantee continued involvement of stakeholders. MANCOGA will provide a digital toolbox of intuitive, interactive tools to analyze and disseminate archived and new observational data, which will enable ecosystem service quantification before and after the application of NbS, and lead to knowledge-based decision-making.We envision MANCOGA as the start of sustained collaboration, knowledge transfer and capacity building. Therefore, we warmly invite researchers and stakeholders, from Africa and elsewhere, to connect to MANCOGA and share experiences and efforts.

Frontiers in Marine Science

The Citizen Observation of Local Litter in coastal ECosysTems (COLLECT) project (2021-2022) is a ... more The Citizen Observation of Local Litter in coastal ECosysTems (COLLECT) project (2021-2022) is a citizen science initiative, supported by the Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO), which aimed to acquire distribution and abundance data of coastal plastic litter in seven countries: in Africa (Benin, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria) and Asia (Malaysia). In this paper, we describe the workflow used to establish and run this project, as well as the methodologies to acquire data. The COLLECT project consisted of training local students (15 - 18 years old) from ten second cycle institutions (“high schools”) on sampling and analyzing macro-, meso- and microplastics in beach sediments, using a quantitative assessment protocol. We further describe in detail the methodologies applied in assessing the impact of participating in the activities from a social sciences perspective. All documents and materials resulting from this project will be open access and a...

Seventh video in a set of 14 videos on designing for stakeholder inclusion in Building with Natur... more Seventh video in a set of 14 videos on designing for stakeholder inclusion in Building with Nature. This video forms a component of the e-book Building with Nature & Beyond (Slinger, 2021) published by TU Delft open Publishing. The book deals with stakeholder-inclusive, ecosystem-based approaches to hydraulic infrastructure design. Such an approach was applied in the Sustainable Ports in Africa project, which forms the central case study of Part II. Other examples are drawn from the Sand Engine, Room for the River, and the Mud Motor in The Netherlands as well as mangrove areas in Indonesia, hydropower exploration in Sierra Leone, and stakeholder engagement procsses in South Africa.

Oceanography, 2021

FIGURE 1. Distribution of the 22 sampling stations involved in the alumni network project "A glob... more FIGURE 1. Distribution of the 22 sampling stations involved in the alumni network project "A global study of coastal Deoxygenation, Ocean Acidification, and Productivity at selected sites" (NANO-DOAP) in September 2021.

CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research - Zenodo, Nov 17, 2022

Fishes

Globally, over 85% of oyster reefs have been lost, and the combined effects of climate change, oc... more Globally, over 85% of oyster reefs have been lost, and the combined effects of climate change, ocean acidification, and environmental degradation, including pollution and mangrove overharvesting, could further reduce global oyster fisheries in the coming decades. To understand the level of impact of climate change on the oyster fishery in West Africa, an expert-based vulnerability assessment to climate change was conducted for the West African mangrove oyster (Crassostrea tulipa, Lamarck 1819). Using a combination of the exposure of the oyster to climatic stressors (estuarine temperature, salinity, river flow, surface run-off, sea level rise, and estuarine circulation) together with an assessment of sensitivity to these stressors, we estimate the overall vulnerability of C. tulipa to climate change. A very high overall climate vulnerability score of 12 on a scale of 16 was calculated for C. tulipa. While the overall climate exposure score in the West African coastal region remained ...

Marine Technology Society Journal

Ocean science capacity is distributed unequally, but a rapidly changing ocean requires widely and... more Ocean science capacity is distributed unequally, but a rapidly changing ocean requires widely and equitably distributed human, technical, and physical ocean science infrastructure. EquiSea: The Ocean Science Fund for All is a platform co-designed through consensus-based stakeholder discussion with more than 200 scientists from around the world. EquiSea aims to improve equity in ocean science by establishing a philanthropic fund to provide direct financial support to projects, coordinating capacity development activities, fostering collaboration and co-financing of ocean science between academia, government, NGOs, and private sector actors, and supporting the development of low-cost and easy-to-maintain ocean science technologies.

Marine Technology Society Journal

Oceanography is by nature a global science, and thus requires a global trained workforce. Yet in ... more Oceanography is by nature a global science, and thus requires a global trained workforce. Yet in many coastal nations, the number of trained professionals working in ocean science fields is lacking. Global Ocean Corps and Conveyor (GOCC), an endorsed capacity development programme of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, aims to increase the geographical and cultural diversity of the ocean science workforce through facilitating and building sustained long-term education and research collaborations between scientists around the globe. Based upon our collective experience with schools and workshops held in Ghana, Malaysia, University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center, and elsewhere, we are confident that a well-funded Ocean Corps would inspire large numbers of scientists, especially early-career scientists, into its ranks, thus molding many of them into champions for international capacity development for the remainder of their careers, and fostering truly...

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2020

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Jul 14, 2021

Remote Sensing in Earth Systems Sciences, 2021

Marine business and resources play a major role in the economics and way of life in coastal West ... more Marine business and resources play a major role in the economics and way of life in coastal West African countries. Such countries see great profitability from their marine resources while also facing challenges that come with a bordering sea. Despite this fact, there has been limited research into the optimal way for West African Coastal States to coexist with, and sustainably use their marine resources, a research deficit that is mainly due to a lack of infrastructure for in-situ work, lack of capacity development, and comprehensive datasets to undertake oceanographic research. The Coastal Ocean Environment Summer School in Ghana (COESSING; www.coessing.org) was developed to help meet some of these challenges. Each summer since 2015, ocean scientists (e.g., biologists, chemists, physicists, hydrologists) from the USA and Europe have collaborated with West African colleagues to lead a week-long intensive summer school in Accra, Ghana, alternating in location between the Regional Maritime University and the University of Ghana. The school receives in excess of 100 participants drawn from universities, government agencies, and the private sector organizations, mainly from Ghana and neighboring Liberia, Nigeria, Togo, and Benin, among others. The format of the school includes morning lectures, afternoon field trips, and hands-on laboratory exercises and one-onone coaching of students. Important to the COESSING program is the satellite oceanography component which introduces participants to the extensive and often free, remotely sensed oceanographic datasets. Participants develop skills that allow them to access, process, and analyze these datasets in order to better understand regional oceanographic phenomena, such as upwelling, pollution, habitat characterization, sea level rise, and coastal erosion. Following the school, facilitators keep in touch with program participants, helping them acquire and analyze data for their studies, dissertations, and often graduate school applications, etc. In summary, schools such as COESSING are critical not only for science in the region but for the global ocean community as such training develops eager, bright minds while leading to improved regional observing and modeling strategies in severely under-sampled seas. Here, we describe a unique case in which satellite oceanography has led to such outcomes for countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa.

Regional Studies in Marine Science, 2020

This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

Research Square (Research Square), Jan 25, 2023

Quaternary Science Advances

Frontiers in Psychology

MRS Advances, Apr 21, 2023

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Apr 28, 2023

Frontiers in Marine Science

Oceanography, 2021

CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research - Zenodo, Nov 17, 2022

Fishes

Marine Technology Society Journal

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2020

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Jul 14, 2021

Remote Sensing in Earth Systems Sciences, 2021

Regional Studies in Marine Science, 2020