EJN Media Grantee Investigates Coastal Resilience Following South Africa’s Deadly Storm
In April 2022, South Africa’s third largest city, Durban, was hit by the most severe storm ever recorded in the country’s history. The extreme weather event unleashed three-fourths of South Africa’s average annual rainfall in 24 hours, and the ensuing inland river flooding caused immense damage to local communities. At least 455 people died, 4,700 people were displaced and 13,500 homes were destroyed—a third of which were informal settlements.
Three months later, Media Hack Collective, a data journalism start-up in South Africa, set about trying to understand the impacts of the 2022 storm in more detail—and the ability of coastal cities like Durban to withstand and recover from future events. With grant support from Internews' Earth Journalism Network’s (EJN) Covering Coastal Resilience project, Media Hack Collective conducted their investigation using a combination of data collection, analysis and visualization tools, as well as academic research and interviews.
The core project team included Alastair Otter (data visualization), Laura Grant (data visualization, analysis and research), Leonie Joubert (reporting, research and writing) and Tanya Pampalone (research, writing, editing and project management). Read on to learn more about their award-winning investigation.
Not just documenting disaster
When EJN announced the opportunity in April 2022—shortly after the Durban flood hit—Media Hack Collective were looking for their next solutions story. “Coastal resilience is a solutions-based issue and as a data-led media organization interested in reporting on climate change solutions, it was a natural fit,” Grant said.
Founded in 2017, Media Hack Collective is a team of data journalists, developers and researchers who tell engaging data-led stories that help people understand complex topics. Specializing in climate change and development issues in Africa, their aim is to empower people with previously inaccessible knowledge and inspire them to act.
“We don’t want to leave people feeling hopeless and helpless in the face of calamity,” Grant said.
The aim of Media Hack Collective’s grant proposal was to use Durban as a case study for coastal resilience. “It wasn’t just a documentation of disaster,” said Grant. Most mainstream media reporting covered the impact of the storm but did not address what we can learn from that night and from Durban’s recovery, she explained.
Over a period of six months, the team looked at urban planning documents and international databases, delved into news reports and academic papers and analyzed satellite images with the help of Digital Earth Africa, an organization that produces satellite data for the African continent. They collected and visualized data on socioeconomic issues; population growth; historical and projected sea level rise and rainfall; residential housing including informal settlements; key infrastructure; and planned developments. They sought to identify what led to the flood and what is needed to minimize both the risk factors and impact of such an event in the future.
Finding data specific to Durban and accessing city personnel for comment was a long and challenging process. Fortunately, the team discovered online recordings of public workshops where city officials had presented their findings relating to the 2022 floods, as well as rainfall data specific to the Durban flood in papers written by South African Weather Service researchers. They were also able to get their hands on some map data thanks to a serendipitous conversation with a former colleague at a conference.
A human data-driven story
But data was only one element of the story. Adding a human angle was also key to creating a narrative that people could relate to. “We didn’t want it to read like a textbook,” Grant said.
The online workshop recordings identified Quarry Road—an informal settlement north of Durban—as the perfect case study for Media Hack Collective’s story. Quarry Road had been well documented in relation to coastal resilience issues and represented some of the most pressing issues that lower-income communities face.
After six months of research, the team published “A Perfect Storm,” a deep dive into coastal resilience using the Durban flood and Quarry Road as case studies. The story combines interactive explainers and data visualization with insights from climate scientists, planning lawyers, the local community and more. In addition to documenting what led to the flood, Media Hack Collective highlights various coastal resilience solutions, such as a community-based early warning system that alerts various parties to danger—giving residents time to evacuate before an extreme weather event—as well as a one-in-100-year flood line map that informs the public about potential risks and the systemic problems that shape the city’s-built environment.
“A Perfect Storm” was published in both The Outlier, Media Hack Collective’s online publication, and in The Daily Maverick, a South African daily newspaper. The report includes information about disaster prevention to help build resilience among coastal communities.
Projects like Media Hack Collective’s "A Perfect Storm" are time-consuming and resource–intensive, requiring specialized skills and expert insight that are hard to pull together in most newsrooms.
“Funding enables more in-depth and nuanced reporting which would otherwise not get done in day-to-day news coverage. It encourages journalists to be more ambitious with their projects,” Grant said.
And this ambition has paid off. In addition to highlighting coastal resilience issues and making information more accessible, "A Perfect Storm" won in the Features category of South Africa’s prestigious 2023 Sikuvile Journalism Awards.
“There's not much reporting on coastal resilience in South Africa—and probably the rest of Africa—compared to the Global North. I hope that by showcasing the issue, it will get more attention,” Grant said.
A resource guide for journalists
Using research from the report, the team also created an in-depth resource for African journalists interested in reporting about coastal resilience in their communities. The 23-page guide covers what climate change resilience means for coastal communities; what data points and risk factors scientists, urban planners and policymakers use to assess these communities; and what solutions are available to protect communities and help them to better “bounce back” from extreme events. It also includes story ideas, resources and funding opportunities for journalists reporting on coastal resilience.
“The guide provides a solid overview and gives excellent practical advice valuably oriented to African journalists,” said Toby McIntosh, senior advisor at Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and author of GIJN’s sea-level rise guide.
Jillian Green, deputy editor of Daily Maverick, has already shared some of the resource guide tools with her team to help them cover floods in the western cape, South Africa. “The section of where to find data is great,” she said, adding that the story ideas were especially useful to journalists too.
Media Hack Collective hopes that the guide will enable fellow journalists to move beyond the basics of coastal resilience and offer solutions to one of the most pressing issues of our time. “My hope is that journalists on this continent will see our project, done by a tiny media organization from South Africa, and be inspired to do more reporting on the issue of coastal resilience,” Grant said. “I'd really love to see more homegrown data journalism in African coastal resilience stories.”
“Coastal resilience is an under-reported topic across Africa, a continent facing many climate impacts simultaneously,” said Hannah Bernstein, who manages EJN's Covering Coastal Resilience project. “The need for clear, data-driven coverage that sheds light on the threats to the continent’s coastal areas—and solutions to address them—is evident, and that’s where Media Hack came in. They were able to unpack an incredibly complex topic and develop not only an in-depth investigation but also a roadmap for journalist to continue covering these issues moving forward, and we’re proud to have supported this important work,” she added.
Banner image: A screenshot of "A Perfect Storm" report, featuring a photo of Nomandla Nqanula standing next to the empty patch of ground where her home once was / Credit: Media Hack Collective.
