Understanding Compound Climate Hazards and Exposure from a Spatial Perspective: A Case Study for the Dosso Region, Niger

Compound climate hazards—where extreme events co-occur— pose increasing risks to our socio-ecological systems, yet their spatial dynamics remain poorly understood. We introduce a novel metric to quantify simultaneous drought and heatwave exposure, applying it to Niger’s Dosso region over a 24-year period (2000–2023) using remote sensing and GIS-based techniques. Our analysis reveals distinct spatiotemporal patterns: Southern and northern municipalities emerge as heatwave hotspots, while drought frequency shifts from southern dominance during peak rainy seasons to central and northern prevalence throughout the rainy season, with most droughts classified as mild. The metric identifies critical years of profound compound hazard occurrence—2000, 2002, 2009, 2011, 2015, and 2021— in northern and central-eastern municipalities. By integrating multi-hazard dynamics, this innovative approach enhances understanding of localised compound climate hazard exposure and lays the groundwork to inform targeted adaptation strategies in climate-vulnerable regions.